LIBRARY 

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RASPUTIN    AND    THE 
RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION 


PItoto  by  Paul  Thompson 


Gregory  Rasputin 
The  Black  Monk  of  Russia" 


RASPUTIN 

AND  THE  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION 


BY 

PRINCESS  CATHERINE  RADZIWILL 

(count  PAUL  VASSILl) 

AUTHOR  OF 
"behind  the  veil  at  the  RUSSIAN  COURT," 
"GERMANT  under  three  EMPERORS," 
ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK:  JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 

LONDON:  JOHN  LANE,  THE  BODLEY  HEAD 

MCMXVIII 

I 'US 


Copyright,  1917, 
By  Public  Ledger  Company 

Copyright,  1918, 
By  John  Lane  Company 


Press  o! 

J .  J.  Little  &  Ives  Company 

New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


TO 

MONSIEUR   JEAN    FINOT 

Editor  of  the  "Revue" 

My  dear  Mr.  Finot: — 

Allow  me  to  offer  you  this  little  book,  which  may  remind  you  of 
the  many  conversations  we  have  had  together,  and  of  the  many 
letters  which  we  have  exchanged.  In  doing  so,  I  am  fulfilling  one 
of  the  pleasantest  of  duties  and  trying  to  express  to  you  all  the 
gratitude  which  I  feel  towards  you.  Witliout  your  kind  help,  and 
without  your  advice,  I  woidd  never  have  had  the  courage  to  take  a 
pen  in  my  hand,  and  all  the  small  success  I  may  have  had  in  my 
literary  career  is  entirely  due  to  you,  and  to  the  constant  encour- 
agement which  you  have  ahvays  given  to  me,  and  which  I  shall 
never  forget,  just  as  I  shall  always  remember  that  it  was  in  the 
*' Revue"  that  the  first  article  I  ever  published  appeared.  Permit 
me  to-day  to  thank  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  and  believe 
me  to  be. 

Always  yours  most  affectionately, 

Catherine  Radziwill 

{Catherine  Kolb-Danvin) 


PUBLISHER'S  FOREWORD 

When  the  book  called  "Behind  the  Veil  at  the  Rus- 
sian Court"  was  published  the  Romanoffs  were  reign- 
ing and,  considering  the  fact  that  she  was  living  in 
Russia  at  the  time,  the  author  of  it,  had  her  identity 
become  known,  would  have  risked  being  subjected 
to  grave  annoyances,  and  even  being  sent  to  that  dis- 
tant Siberia  where  Nicholas  II  is  at  present  exiled. 
It  was  therefore  deemed  advisable  to  produce  that 
work  as  a  posthumous  one,  and  "Count  Paul  Vassili" 
was  represented  as  having  died  before  the  publication 
of  "his"  Memoirs.  This  however  was  not  the  case,  be- 
cause on  the  contrary  "he"  went  on  collecting  infor- 
mation as  to  all  that  was  taking  place  at  the  Russian 
Court  as  well  as  in  the  whole  of  Russia,  and,  consign- 
ing this  information  to  a  diary,  "he"  went  on  writing. 
If  one  remembers,  "Count  Vassili"  distinctly  foresaw 
and  prophesied  in  "his"  book  most  of  the  things  that 
have  occurred  since  it  was  published.  This  fact  will 
perhaps  give  added  interest  to  the  present  account 
of  the  Russian  Revolution  which  now  sees  the  light 
of  day  for  the  first  time.  Though  devoid  of  every- 
thing sensational  or  scandalous  it  will  prove  interest- 
ing to  those  who  have  cared  for  the  other  books  of 
"Count  Vassili,"  for  it  contains  nothing  but  the  truth, 
and  has  been  compiled  chiefly  out  of  the  narrations 
of  the  principal  personages  connected  in  some  way 
or  other  with  the  Russian  Revolution.    The  facts  con- 

7 


8  Publisher's  Foreword 

cerning  Rasputin,  and  the  details  of  this  man's  ex- 
traordinary career,  are,  we  beheve,  given  out  now  for 
the  first  time  to  the  American  public,  which,  up  to  the 
present  moment,  has  been  fed  on  more  or  less  untrue 
and  improbable  stories  or,  rather,  "fairy  tales,"  in  re- 
gard to  this  famous  adventurer.  The  truth  is  far 
simpler,  but  far  more  human,  though  humanity  does 
not  shine  in  the  best  colours  in  its  description. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Part     I. — Rasputin 13 

Part    II. — The  Great  Revolution 191 

Part  III. — The  Riddle  of  the  Future 301 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Gregory  Rasputin — "The  Black  Monk  of  Russia"  Frontispiece 


FACING  PAGE 


The  Ex-Czar  and  His  Family 34 

Rasputin  and  His  "  Court " 74 

Rasputin 94 

The  First  Bolsheviki  Cabinet 200 

The  Bolsheviki  Headquarters  in  Petrograd       ....  220 

The  Bolsheviki  General  Staff 230 

Soldier  and  Sailor  Citizens'  Duma     ....-„.  240 

Foreign  Minister  Leon  Trotzky   ........  250 

Meeting  Addressed  by  Nikolai  Lenine 260 

Alexander  Kerensky 276 

Revolutionary  Crowd  in  Petrograd         280 

Bolsheviki  Sailors  Buried  at  Moscow 290 

Kerensky  Inspiring  Troops  To  Support  Revolutionary 

Government 304 

Peace  Document  of  Delegates  at  Brest-Litovsk  Confer- 
ence      310 

The  House  at  Brest-Litovsk  Where  Peace  Negotiations 
Between  the  Russian  Bolsheviki  and  the  Austrian-Ger- 
mans Were  Conducted 318 


PART  I 
RASPUTIN 


INTRODUCTION 

This  expose,  based  on  facts  which  have  come  to  my 
knowledge,  though  probably  far  from  being  com- 
plete, aims  at  depicting  the  recent  state  of  things  in 
Russia,  and  thus  to  explain  how  the  great  changes 
which  have  taken  place  in  my  country  have  been  ren- 
dered possible.  A  lot  of  exaggerated  tales  have  been 
put  into  circulation  concerning  the  Empress  Alex- 
andra, the  part  she  has  played  in  the  perturbations 
that  have  shaken  Russia  from  one  end  to  another  and 
the  extraordinary  influence  which,  thanks  to  her  and 
to  her  efforts  in  his  behalf,  the  sinister  personage 
called  Rasputin  came  to  acquire  over  public  affairs 
in  the  vast  empire  reigned  over  by  Nicholas  II.  for 
twenty- two  years.  A  good  many  of  these  tales  repose 
on  nothing  but  imagination,  but  nevertheless  it  is  un- 
fortunately too  true  that  it  is  to  the  conduct  of  the 
Empress,  and  to  the  part  she  attempted  to  play  in  the 
politics  of  the  world,  that  the  Romanoffs  owe  the  loss 
of  their  throne. 

Alexandra  Feodorovna  has  been  the  evil  genius  of 
the  dynasty  whose  head  she  married.  Without  her  it 
is  probable  that  most  of  the  disasters  that  have  over- 
taken the  Russian  armies  would  not  have  happened, 
and  it  is  certain  that  the  crown  which  had  been  worn 
by  Peter  the  Great  and  by  Catherine  II.  would  not 
have  been  disgraced.     She  was  totally  unfit  for  the 

15 


i6    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

position  to  which  chance  had  raised  her,  and  she  never 
was  able  to  understand  the  character  or  the  needs  of 
the  people  over  which  she  ruled. 

Monstrously  selfish,  she  never  looked  beyond  mat- 
ters purely  personal  to  her  or  to  her  son,  w^hom  she 
idolized  in  an  absurd  manner.  She,  who  had  been 
reared  in  principles  of  true  liberalism,  who  had  had  in 
her  grandmother,  the  late  Queen  Victoria,  a  perfect 
example  of  a  constitutional  sovereign,  became  from 
the  very  first  day  of  her  arrival  in  Russia  the  enemy 
of  every  progress,  of  every  attempt  to  civilise  the 
nation  which  owned  her  for  its  Empress.  She  gave 
her  confidence  to  the  most  ferocious  reactionaries  the 
country  possessed.  She  tried,  and  in  a  certain  degree 
succeeded,  in  inspiring  in  her  husband  the  disdain  of 
his  people  and  the  determination  to  uphold  an  auto- 
cratic system  of  government  that  ought  to  have  been 
overturned  and  replaced  by  an  enlightened  one. 
Haughty  by  nature  and  by  temperament,  she  had  an 
unlimited  confidence  in  her  own  abilities,  and  espe- 
cially after  she  had  become  the  mother  of  the  son  she 
had  longed  for  during  so  many  years,  she  came  to  be- 
lieve that  everything  she  wished  or  wanted  to  do  had 
to  be  done  and  that  her  subjects  were  but  her  slaves. 
She  had  a  strong  will  and  much  imperiousness  in  her 
character,  and  understood  admirably  the  weak  points 
tin  her  husband,  who  became  but  a  puppet  in  her 
hands. 

She  herself  was  but  a  plaything  in  the  game  of  a 
few  unscrupulous  adventurers  who  used  her  for  the 
furtherance  of  their  own  ambitious,  money-grubbing 


Rasputin  17 

schemes,  and  who,  but  for  the  unexpected  events  that 
led  to  the  overthrow  of  the  house  of  Romanoff,  would 
in  time  have  betrayed  Russia  into  sullying  her  fair 
fame  as  well  as  her  reputation  in  history. 

Rasputin,  about  whom  so  much  has  been  said,  was 
but  an  incident  in  the  course  of  a  whole  series  of  facts, 
all  of  them  more  or  less  disgraceful,  and  none  of  which 
had  a  single  extenuating  cu'cumstance  to  put  forward 
as  an  excuse  for  their  perpetration. 

He  himself  was  far  from  being  the  remarkable  in- 
dividual he  has  been  represented  by  some  people,  and 
had  he  been  left  alone  it  is  likely  that  even  if  one  had 
heard  about  him  it  would  not  have  been  for  any  length 
of  time. 

Those  who  hated  him  did  so  chiefly  because  they 
had  not  been  able  to  obtain  from  him  what  they  had 
wanted,  and  they  applied  themselves  to  paint  him  as 
much  more  dangerous  than  he  really  was.  They  did 
not  know  that  he  was  but  the  mouthpiece  of  other 
people  far  cleverer  and  far  more  unscrupulous  even 
than  himself,  who  hid  themselves  behind  him  and  who 
moved  him  as  they  would  have  done  pawns  in  a  game 
of  chess  according  to  their  personal  auns  and  wants. 
These  people  it  was  who  nearly  brought  Russia  to 
the  verge  of  absolute  ruin,  and  they  would  never  have 
been  able  to  rise  to  the  power  which  they  wielded  had 
not  the  Empress  lent  herself  to  their  schemes.  Her 
absolute  belief  in  the  merits  of  the  wandering 
preacher,  thanks  to  his  undoubted  magnetic  influ- 


1 8    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ence,  contrived  to  get  hold  of  her  mind  and  to  per- 
suade her  that  so  long  as  he  was  at  her  side  nothing 
evil  could  befall  her  or  her  family. 

It  is  not  generally  known  outside  of  Russia  that 
Alexandra  Feodorovna  despised  her  husband,  and 
that  she  made  no  secret  of  the  fact.  She  considered 
him  as  a  weak  individual,  unable  to  give  himself  an 
account  of  what  was  going  on  around  him,  who  had 
to  be  guided  and  never  left  to  himself.  Her  flatter- 
ers, of  whom  she  had  many  at  a  time,  had  persuaded 
her  that  she  possessed  all  the  genius  and  most  of  the 
qualities  of  Catherine  II.,  and  that  she  ought  to  fol- 
low the  example  of  the  latter  by  rallying  around  her 
a  sufficient  number  of  friends  to  effect  a  palace  revo- 
lution which  would  transform  her  into  the  reigning 
sovereign  of  that  Russia  which  she  did  not  know  and 
whose  character  she  was  unable  to  understand.  Love 
for  Nicholas  II.  she  had  never  had,  nor  esteem  for 
him,  and  from  the  very  first  moment  of  her  marriage 
she  had  affected  to  treat  him  as  a  negligible  quantity. 
But  influence  over  him  she  had  taken  good  care  to 
acquire.  She  had  jealously  kept  away  from  him  all 
the  people  from  whom  he  could  have  heard  the  truth 
or  who  could  have  signalled  to  him  the  dangers  which 
his  djmasty  was  running  by  the  furtherance  of  a  pol- 
icy which  had  become  loathsome  to  the  country  and 
on  account  of  which  the  war  with  Germany  had  taken 
such  an  unexpected  and  dangerous  course. 

The  Empress,  like  all  stupid  people,  and  her  stu- 
pidity has  not  been  denied,  even  by  her  best  friends, 
believed  that  one  could  rule  a  nation  by  terror.  She, 
therefore,  always  interposed  herself  whenever  Nicho- 


Rasputin  19 

las  II.  was  induced  to  adopt  a  more  liberal  system  of 
govermnent  and  urged  him  to  subdue  by  force  aspi- 
rations it  would  have  been  far  better  for  him  to  have 
encouraged.  She  had  listened  to  all  the  representa- 
tives of  that  detestable  old  bureaucratic  system  which 
gave  to  the  police  the  sole  right  to  dispose  of  people's 
lives  and  which  relied  on  Siberia  and  the  knout  to  keep 
in  order  an  aggrieved  country  eager  to  be  admitted 
to  the  circle  of  civilised  European  nations. 

Without  her  and  without  her  absurd  fears,  it  is 
likely  that  the  first  Duma  would  not  have  been  dis- 
solved. Without  her  entreaties,  it  is  probable  that 
the  troops  composing  the  gari'ison  at  St.  Petersburg 
would  not  have  been  commanded  to  fire  at  the  peace- 
ful population  of  the  capital  on  that  January  day 
when,  headed  by  the  priest  Gapone,  it  had  repaired 
to  the  Winter  Palace  to  lay  its  wrongs  before  the 
Czar,  whom  it  still  worshipped  at  that  time.  She  was 
at  the  bottom  of  every  tyrannical  action  which  took 
place  during  the  reign  of  Nicholas  II.  And  lately 
she  was  the  moving  spirit  in  the  campaign,  engineered 
by  the  friends  of  Rasputin,  to  conclude  a  separate 
peace  with  Germany. 

In  the  long  intrigue  which  came  to  an  end  by  the 
publication  of  the  Manifesto  of  Pskow,  Rasputin  un- 
doubtedly played  a  considerable  part,  but  all  un- 
consciously. Those  who  used  him,  together  with  his 
influence,  were  very  careful  not  to  initiate  him  into 
their  difl"erent  schemes.  But  they  paid  him,  they  fed 
him,  they  gave  him  champagne  to  drink  and  pretty 
women  to  make  love  to  in  order  to  induce  him  to  re- 
present them  to  the  Empress  as  being  the  only  men  ca- 


1 


20    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

pable  of  saving  Russia,  about  which  she  did  not  care, 
and  her  crown,  to  which  she  was  so  attached.  With 
Rasputin  she  never  discussed  politics,  nor  did  the  Em- 
peror. But  with  his  friends  she  talked  over  every 
political  subject  of  importance  to  the  welfare  of  the 
nation,  and  being  convinced  that  they  were  the  men 
best  capable  of  upholding  her  interests,  she  forced 
them  upon  her  husband  and  compelled  him  to  follow 
the  advice  which  they  gave.  She  could  not  bear  con- 
tradiction, and  she  loved  flattery.  She  was  convinced 
that  no  one  was  more  clever  than  herself,  and  she 
wished  to  impose  her  views  everywhere  and  upon 
every  occasion. 

Few  sovereigns  have  been  hated  as  she  has  been. 
In  every  class  of  society  her  name  was  mentioned  with 
execration,  and  following  the  introduction  of  Raspu- 
tin into  her  household  this  aversion  which  she  inspired 
grew  to  a  phenomenal  extent.  She  was  openly  ac- 
cused of  degrading  the  position  which  she  held  and 
the  crown  which  she  wore.  In  every  town  and  vil- 
lage of  the  empire  her  conduct  came  to  be  discussed 
and  her  person  to  be  cursed.  She  was  held  respon- 
sible for  all  the  mistakes  that  were  made,  for  all  the 
blunders  which  were  committed,  for  all  the  omissions 
which  had  been  deplored.  And  when  the  plot 
against  Rasputin  came  to  be  engineered  it  was  as 
much  directed  against  the  person  of  Alexandra  Feo- 
dorovna  as  against  that  of  her  favourite,  and  it  was  she 
whom  the  people  aimed  to  strike  through  him. 

Had  she  shown  some  common  sense  after  the  mur- 
der of  a  man  whom  she  well  knew  was  considered  the 
most  dangerous  enemy  of  the  Romanoff  dynasty 


Rasputin  21 

things  might  have  taken  a  different  course.  Though 
every  one  was  agreed  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  change 
in  the  system  of  government  of  Russia,  though  a  rev- 
olution was  considered  inevitable,  yet  no  one  wished 
it  to  happen  at  the  moment  when  it  did,  and  all  polit- 
ical parties  were  agreed  as  to  the  necessity  of  post- 
poning it  until  after  the  war.  But  the  exasperation 
of  the  Empress  against  those  who  had  removed  her 
favourite  led  her  to  trust  even  more  in  those  whom  he 
had  introduced  and  recommended  to  her  attention. 
She  threw  herself  with  a  renewed  vigour  into  their 
schemes,  urging  her  husband  to  dishonour  himself, 
together  with  his  signature,  by  turning  traitor  to  his 
allies  and  to  his  promises.  She  wanted  him  to  conclude 
a  peace  with  Germany  that  would  have  allowed  her  a 
free  hand  in  her  desires  to  punish  all  the  people  who 
had  conspired  against  her  and  against  the  man  upon 
whom  she  had  looked  as  a  saviour  and  a  saint.  Once 
this  fact  was  recognised  the  revolution  became  inevi- 
table. It  is  to  the  credit  of  Russia  that  it  took  place 
with  the  dignity  that  has  marked  its  development  and 
success. 

This,  in  broad  lines,  is  the  summary  of  the  causes 
that  have  brought  about  the  fall  of  the  Romanoff  dy- 
nasty, and  they  must  never  be  lost  sight  of  when  one 
is  trying  to  describe  it.  It  is,  however,  far  too  early 
to  judge  the  Russian  revolution  in  its  effects  because, 
for  one  thing,  it  is  far  from  being  at  an  end,  and  may 
yet  take  quite  an  unexpected  turn.  For  another,  the 
events  connected  with  it  are  still  too  fresh  to  be  con- 
sidered from  an  objective  point  of  view.  I  have, 
therefore,  refrained  from  expressing  an  opinion  in 


22    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

this  narrative.  My  aim  has  been  to  present  to  my 
readers  a  description  of  the  personality  of  Rasputin, 
together  with  the  part,  such  as  I  know  it,  that  he  has 
played  in  the  development  of  Russian  history  during 
the  last  five  years  or  so,  and  afterward  to  describe  the 
course  of  the  revolution  and  the  reasons  that  have  led 
to  its  explosion  in  such  an  unexpected  manner. 


CHAPTER  I 

We  live  in  strange  times,  when  strange  things  hap- 
pen which  at  first  sight  seem  unintelhgible  and  the 
reason  for  which  we  fail  to  grasp.  Even  in  Russia, 
where  Rasputin  had  become  the  most  talked-of  per- 
son in  the  whole  empire,  few  people  fully  realised 
what  he  was  and  what  had  been  the  part  which  he 
had  played  in  Russia's  modern  history.  Yet  during 
the  last  ten  years  his  name  had  become  a  familiar  one 
in  the  palaces  of  the  great  nobles  whose  names  were 
•written  down  in  the  Golden  Book  of  the  aristocracy 
of  the  country,  as  well  as  in  the  huts  of  the  poorest 
peasants  in  the  land.  At  a  time  when  incredulity  was 
attacking  the  heart  and  the  intelligence  of  the  Rus- 
sian nation  the  appearance  of  this  vagrant  preacher 
and  adept  of  one  of  the  most  persecuted  sects  in  the 
empire  was  almost  as  great  an  event  as  was  that  of 
Cagliostro  during  the  years  which  preceded  the  fall 
of  the  old  French  monarchy. 

There  was,  however,  a  great  difference  between  the 
two  personages.  One  was  a  courtier  and  a  refined 
man  of  the  world,  while  the  other  was  only  an  uncouth 
peasant,  with  a  crude  cunning  which  made  him  dis- 
cover soon  in  what  direction  his  bread  could  be  but- 
tered and  what  advantages  he  might  reap  out  of  the 
extraordinary  positions  to  which  events,  together  with 
the  ambitions  of  a  few,  had  carried  him.    He  was  a 

23 


24    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

perfect  impersonation  of  the  kind  of  individual  known 
in  the  annals  of  Russian  history  as  "Wremienscht- 
chik,"  literally  "the  Man  of  the  Day,"  an  appellation 
which  since  the  times  of  Peter  the  Great  had  clung 
to  all  the  different  favourites  of  Russian  sovereigns. 
There  was  one  difference,  however,  and  this  a  most 
essential  one.  He  had  never  been  the  favourite  of  the 
present  Czar,  who  perhaps  did  not  feel  as  sorry  as 
might  have  been  expected  by  his  sudden  disappear- 
ance from  the  scene  of  the  world. 

I  shall  say  a  thing  which  perhaps  will  surprise  my 
readers.  Personally,  Rasputin  was  never  the  om- 
nipotent man  he  was  believed  to  be,  and  more  than 
once  most  of  the  things  which  were  attributed  to  him 
were  not  at  all  his  own  work.  But  he  liked  the  public 
to  think  that  he  had  a  finger  in  every  pie  that  was 
being  baked.  And  he  contrived  to  imbue  Russian  so- 
ciety at  large  with  such  a  profound  conviction  that  he 
could  do  absolutely  everything  he  chose  in  regard  to 
the  placing  or  displacing  of  people  in  high  places,  ob- 
taining money  grants  and  goverrmient  contracts  for 
his  various  "proteges,"  that  very  often  the  persons 
upon  whom  certain  things  depended  hastened  to  grant 
them  to  those  who  asked  in  the  name  of  Rasputin,  out 
of  sheer  fright  of  finding  this  terrible  being  in  their 
way.  They  feared  to  refuse  compliance  with  any  re- 
quest preferred  to  them  either  by  himself  or  by  one 
who  could  recommend  himself  on  the  strength  of  his 
good  offices  on  their  behalf.  But  Rasputin  was  the 
tool  of  a  man  far  more  clever  than  himself.  Count 
Witte.  It  was  partly  due  to  the  latter 's  influence  and 
du'ections  that  he  tried  to  mix  himself  up  in  affairs 


Rasputin  25 

of  state  and  to  give  advice  to  people  whom  he  thought 
to  be  in  need  of  it.  He  was  an  illiterate  brute,  but 
he  had  all  the  instincts  of  a  domineering  mind  which 
circumstances  and  the  station  of  life  in  which  he  had 
been  born  had  prevented  from  developing.  He  had 
also  something  else — an  undoubted  magnetic  force, 
which  allowed  him  to  add  auto-suggestion  to  all  his 
words  and  which  made  even  unbelieving  people  suc- 
cumb sometimes  to  the  hypnotic  practices  which  he 
most  undoubtedly  exercised  to  a  considerable  extent 
during  the  last  years  of  his  adventurous  existence. 

Amidst  the  discontent  which,  it  would  be  idle  to 
deny,  had  existed  in  the  Russian  empire  during  the 
period  which  immediately  preceded  the  great  war  the 
personality  of  Rasputin  had  played  a  great  part  in 
giving  to  certain  people  the  opportunity  to  exploit 
his  almost  constant  presence  at  the  side  of  the  sov- 
ereign as  a  means  to  foment  public  opinion  against 
the  Emperor  and  to  throw  discredit  upon  him  by  rep- 
resenting him  as  being  entirely  under  the  influence 
of  the  cunning  peasant  who,  by  a  strange  freak  of 
destiny,  had  suddenly  become  far  more  powerful  than 
the  strongest  ministers  themselves.  The  press  be- 
longing to  the  opposition  parties  had  got  into  the 
habit  of  attacking  him  and  calling  his  attendance  on 
the  imperial  court  an  open  scandal,  which  ought  in 
the  interest  of  the  dynasty  to  be  put  an  end  to  by 
every  means  available. 

In  the  Duma  his  name  had  been  mentioned  more 
than  once,  and  always  with  contempt.  Every  kind  of 
reproach  had  been  hurled  at  him,  and  others  had  not 
been  spared.    He  had  become  at  last  a  fantastic  kind 


26    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

of  creature,  more  exploited  than  exploiting,  more  de- 
stroyable  than  destructive,  one  whose  real  "role"  will 
never  be  known  to  its  full  extent,  who  might  in  other 
countries  than  Russia  and  at  another  time  have  be- 
come the  founder  of  some  religious  order  or  secret 
association.  His  actions  when  examined  in  detail  do 
not  differ  very  much  from  those  of  the  fanatics  which 
in  Paris  under  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.  were  called 
the  "Convulsionnaires,"  and  who  gave  way  to  all  kind 
of  excesses  under  the  pretext  that  these  were  accept- 
able to  God  by  reason  of  the  personality  of  the  people 
who  inspired  them.  In  civilised,  intelligent,  well-edu- 
cated Europe  such  an  apparition  would  have  been 
impossible,  but  in  Russia,  that  land  of  mysteries  and 
of  deep  faiths,  where  there  still  exist  religious  sects 
given  to  all  kinds  of  excesses  and  to  attacks  of  pious 
imadness  (for  it  can  hardly  be  called  by  any  other 
name),  he  acquired  within  a  relatively  short  time  the 
affections  of  a  whole  lot  of  people.  They  were  in- 
clined to  see  in  him  a  prophet  whose  prayers  were  ca- 
pable of  winning  for  them  the  Divine  Paradise  for 
which  their  hungry  souls  were  longing.  There  was 
nothing  at  all  phenomenal  about  it.  It  was  even  in 
a  certain  sense  quite  a  natural  manifestation  of  this 
large  Russian  nature,  which  is  capable  of  so  many 
good  or  bad  excesses  and  which  has  deeply  incrusted 
at  the  bottom  of  its  heart  a  tendency  to  seek  the  su- 
pernatural in  default  of  the  religious  convictions 
which,  thanks  to  circumstances,  it  has  come  to  lose. 

The  American  public  is  perhaps  not  generally 
aware  of  the  character  of  certain  religious  sects  in 
Russia,  which  is  considered  to  be  a  country  of  ortho- 


Rasputin  27 

doxy,  with  the  Czar  at  its  head,  and  where  people 
think  there  is  no  room  left  for  any  other  religion  than 
the  official  one  to  develop  itself.  In  reality,  things 
are  very  different,  and  to  this  day,  outside  of  the 
recognised  nonconformists,  who  have  their  own  bish- 
ops and  priests,  and  whose  faith  is  recognised  and 
acknowledged  by  the  State,  there  are  any  number  of 
sects,  each  more  superstitious  and  each  more  power- 
ful than  the  other  in  regard  to  the  influence  which 
they  exercise  over  their  adherents.  These,  though 
not  numerous  by  any  means,  yet  are  actuated  by  such 
fanaticism  that  they  are  apt  at  certain  moments 
to  become  subjects  of  considerable  embarrassment  to 
the  authorities.  Some  are  inspired  by  the  conviction 
that  the  only  means  to  escape  from  the  clutches  of  the 
devil  consists  in  suicide  or  in  the  murder  of  othei* 
people. 

For  instance,  the  Baby  Killers,  or  Dietooubitsy, 
as  they  are  called,  think  it  a  duty  to  send  to  Heaven 
the  souls  of  new-born  infants,  which  they  destroy  as 
soon  as  they  see  the  light  of  day,  thinking  thus 
to  render  themselves  agreeable  to  the  Almighty  by 
snatching  children  away  from  the  power  of  the  evil 
one.  Another  sect,  which  goes  by  the  name  of 
Stranglers,  fully  believes  that  the  doors  of  Heaven 
are  only  opened  before  those  who  have  died  a  violent 
death,  and  whenever  a  relative  or  friend  is  danger- 
ously ill  they  proceed  to  smother  him  under  the 
weight  of  many  pillows  so  as  to  hasten  the  end.  The 
Philipovtsy  preach  salvation  through  suicide,  and  the 
voluntary  death  of  several  people  in  common  is  con- 
sidered by  them  as  a  most  meritorious  action.    Some- 


28    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

times  whole  villages  decide  to  unite  themselves  in  one 
immense  holocaust  and  barricade  themselves  in  a 
house,  which  is  afterward  set  on  fire. 

An  incident  that  occurred  during  the  reign  of  Alex- 
ander II.  is  remembered  to  this  day  in  Russia.  A 
peasant  called  Khodkine  persuaded  twenty  people  to 
retire  together  with  him  into  a  grotto  hidden  in  the 
vast  forests  of  the  government  of  Perm,  where  he 
compelled  them  to  die  of  hunger.  Two  women  hav- 
ing contrived  to  escape,  the  fanatics,  fearing  that  they 
might  be  denounced,  killed  themselves  with  the  first 
weapons  which  fell  under  their  hand.  It  was  their 
terror  that  they  might  find  themselves  compelled  to 
renounce  their  sinister  design,  and  thus  fall  again  into 
the  clutches  of  that  Satan  for  fear  of  whom  they  had 
made  up  their  minds  to  encounter  an  awful  death. 
Even  as  late  as  the  end  of  the  last  century  such  acts 
of  fanaticism  could  be  met  with  here  and  there  in 
the  east  and  centre  of  Russia.  In  1883,  under  the 
reign  of  the  father  of  the  last  Czar,  a  peasant  in 
the  government  of  Riazan,  called  Joukofi",  burnt  him- 
self to  death  by  setting  fire  to  his  clothes,  which  he 
had  previously  soaked  in  paraffin,  and  expired  under 
the  most  awful  torments,  singing  hymns  of  praise  to 
the  Lord. 

Among  all  these  heresies  there  are  two  which  have 
attracted  more  than  the  others  the  attention  of  the 
authorities,  thanks  to  their  secret  rites  and  to  their 
immoral  tendencies.  They  are  the  Skoptsy,  or  Vol- 
untary Eunuchs,  about  which  it  is  useless  to  say  any- 
thing here,  and  the  Khlysty,  or  Flagellants,  which 
to  this  day  has  a  considerable  number  of  adepts  and 


Rasputin  29 

to  which  Rasputin  undoubtedly  belonged,  to  which, 
in  fact,  he  openly  owed  allegiance.  This  sect,  which 
calls  itself  "Men  of  God,"  has  the  strangest  rites 
which  human  imagination  can  invent.  According  to 
its  precepts,  a  human  creature  should  try  to  raise  its 
soul  toward  the  Divinity  with  the  help  of  sexual  ex- 
cesses of  all  kinds.  During  their  assemblies  they  in- 
dulge in  a  kind  of  waltz  around  and  around  the  room, 
which  reminds  one  of  nothing  so  much  as  the  rounds 
of  the  Dancing  Dervishes  in  the  East.  They  dance 
and  dance  until  their  strength  fails  them,  when  they 
drop  to  the  floor  in  a  kind  of  trance  or  ecstasy,  during 
which,  being  hardly  accountable  for  their  actions,  they 
imagine  that  they  see  Christ  and  the  Virgin  Mary 
among  them.  They  then  threw  themselves  into  the 
embrace  of  the  supposed  divinities. 

As  a  rule  the  general  public  knows  very  little  con- 
cerning these  sects,  but  I  shall  quote  here  a  passage 
out  of  a  book  on  Russia  by  Sir  Donald  Mackenzie 
Wallace,  which  is  considered  to  this  day  as  a  standard 
work  in  regard  to  its  subject.  "Among  the  'Khly- 
sty,'  "  he  writes,  "there  are  men  and  women  who  take 
upon  themselves  the  calling  of  teachers  and  prophets, 
and  in  this  character  they  lead  a  strict,  ascetic  life,  re- 
frain from  the  most  ordinary  and  innocent  pleasures, 
exhaust  themselves  by  long  fasting  and  wild  ecstatic 
religious  exercises  and  abhor  marriage.  Under  the 
excitement  caused  by  their  supposed  holiness  and  in-^ 
spiration,  they  call  themselves  not  only  teachers  and 
prophets,  but  also  Saviours,  Redeemers,  Christs, 
Mothers  of  God.  Generally  speaking,  they  call  them- 
selves simply  gods  and  pray  to  each  other  as  to  real 


30    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

gods  and  living  Christs  and  Madonnas.  When  sev- 
eral of  these  teachers  come  together  at  a  meeting  they 
dispute  with  each  other  in  a  vain,  boasting  way  as  to 
which  of  them  possesses  most  grace  and  power.  In 
this  rivalry  they  sometimes  give  each  other  lusty 
blows  on  the  ear,  and  he  who  bears  the  blows  the  most 
patiently,  turning  the  other  cheek  to  the  smiter,  ac- 
quires the  reputation  of  having  the  most  holiness. 

"Another  sect  belonging  to  the  same  category 
and  which  mdeed  claims  close  kindred  with  it  is  the 
Jumpers,  among  whom  the  erotic  element  is  dis- 
agreeably prominent.  Here  is  a  description  of 
their  religious  meetings,  which  are  held  during 
summer  in  a  forest  and  during  winter  in  some  out- 
house or  barn.  After  due  preparation  prayers  are 
read  by  the  chief  teacher,  dressed  in  a  white  robe 
and  standing  in  the  midst  of  the  congregation.  At 
first  he  reads  in  an  ordinary  tone  of  voice  and  then 
passes  gradually  into  a  merry  chant.  .When  he  re- 
marks that  the  chanting  has  sufficiently  acted  on  the 
hearers  he  begins  to  jump.  The  hearers,  singing 
likewise,  follow  his  example.  Their  ever-increasing 
excitement  finds  expression  in  the  highest  possible 
jumps.  This  they  continue  as  long  as  they  can — 
men  and  women  alike  yelling  like  enraged  savages. 
When  all  are  thoroughly  exhausted  the  leader  de- 
clares that  he  hears  the  angels  singing,  and  then 
begins  a  scene  which  cannot  be  here  described." 

I  have  quoted  this  passage  in  full  because  it  may 
give  to  the  reader  who  is  not  versed  in  the  details  of 


Rasputin  31 

Russian  existence  and  Russian  psychology  the  key  to 
the  circumstances  that  helped  Rasputin  to  absorb  for 
such  a  considerable  number  of  years  the  attention  of 
the  public  in  Russia,  and  which,  in  fact,  made  him 
possible  as  a  gi-eat  ruling,  though  not  governing, 
force  in  the  country.  In  some  ways  he  had  appealed 
to  the  two  great  features  of  the  human  character  in 
general  and  of  the  Russian  character  in  particular — 
mysticism  and  influence  of  the  senses.  It  is  not  so 
surprising  as  it  might  seem  at  first  sight  that  he  con- 
trived to  ascend  to  a  position  which  no  one  who  knew 
him  at  first  ever  supposed  he  would  or  could  attain. 
At  the  same  time  I  must,  in  giving  a  brief  sketch 
of  the  career  of  this  extraordinary  individual,  protest 
against  the  many  calumnies  which  have  associated  him 
with  names  which  I  will  not  mention  here  out  of  re- 
spect and  feelings  of  patriotism.  It  is  sufficiently 
painful  to  have  to  say  so,  but  German  calumny,  which 
spares  no  one,  has  used  its  poisoned  arrows  also  where 
Rasputin  came  to  be  discussed.  It  has  tried  to  tra- 
vesty maternal  love  and  anxiety  into  something  quite 
diff'erent,  and  it  has  attempted  to  sully  what  it  could 
not  touch.  There  have  been  many  sad  episodes  in 
this  whole  story  of  Rasputin,  but  some  of  the  people 
who  have  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  them 
were  completely  innocent  of  the  things  for  which  they 
have  been  reproached.  Finally,  the  indignation  which 
these  vile  and  unfounded  accusations  roused  in  the 
hearts  of  the  true  friends  and  servants  of  the  people 
led  to  the  drama  which  removed  forever  from  the  sur- 
face of  Russian  society  the  sectarian  who  unfortu- 
nately had  contrived  to  glide  into  its  midst. 


32     Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

The  one  extraordinary  thing  about  Rasputin  is 
that  he  was  not  murdered  sooner.  He  was  so  en- 
tirely despised  and  so  universally  detested  all  over 
Russia  that  it  was  really  a  miracle  that  he  could  re- 
main alive  so  long  a  time  after  it  had  been  found  im- 
possible to  remove  him  from  the  scene  of  the  world 
by  other  than  violent  means.  It  was  a  recognised  fact 
that  he  had  had  a  hand  in  all  kinds  of  dirty  money 
matters  and  that  no  business  of  a  financial  character 
connected  with  military  expenditure  could  be  brought 
to  a  close  without  his  being  mixed  in  it.  About  this, 
however,  I  shall  speak  later  on  in  trying  to  explain 
how  the  Rasputin  legend  spread  and  how  it  was  ex- 
ploited by  all  kinds  of  individuals  of  a  shady  character, 
who  used  his  name  for  purposes  of  their  own.  The 
scandal  connected  with  the  shameless  manner  in 
which  he  became  associated  with  innumerable  trans- 
actions more  or  less  disreputable  was  so  enormous 
that  unfortunately  it  extended  to  people  and  to  names 
that  should  never  have  been  mentioned  together  with 
him. 

It  must  never  be  forgotten,  and  I  cannot  repeat 
this  sufficiently,  that  Rasputin  was  a  common  peas- 
ant of  the  worst  class  of  the  Russian  moujiks,  devoid 
of  every  kind  of  education,  without  any  manners  and 
in  his  outward  appearance  more  disgusting  than 
anything  else.  It  would  be  impossible  to  explain  the 
influence  which  he  undoubtedly  contrived  to  acquire 
upon  some  persons  belonging  to  the  highest  social 
circles  if  one  did  not  take  into  account  this  mysticism 
and  superstition  which  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  Slav 


Rasputin  33 

nature  and  the  tendency  which  the  Russian  character 
has  to  accept  as  a  manifestation  of  the  power  of  the 
divinity  all  things  that  touch  upon  the  marvellous  or 
the  unexplainable.  Rasputin  in  a  certain  sense  ap- 
peared on  the  scene  of  Russian  social  life  at  the  very 
moment  when  his  teachings  could  become  acceptable, 
at  the  time  when  Russian  society  had  been  shaken 
to  its  deepest  depths  by  the  revolution  which  had 
followed  upon  the  Japanese  war  and  when  it  was 
looking  everywhere  for  a  safe  harbour  in  which  to 
find  a  refuge. 

At  the  beginning  of  his  career  and  when  he  was 
introduced  into  the  most  select  cu'cles  of  the  Russian 
capital,  thanks  to  the  caprices  and  the  fancies  of  two 
or  three  fanatic  orthodox  ladies  who  had  imagined 
that  they  had  found  in  him  a  second  Savonarola  and 
that  his  sermons  and  teachings  could  provoke  a  re- 
newal of  religious  fervour,  people  laughed  at  him  and 
at  his  feminine  disciples,  and  made  all  kinds  of  jokes, 
good  and  bad,  about  him  and  them.  But  this  kind 
of  thing  did  not  last  long  and  Rasputin,  who,  though 
utterly  devoid  of  culture,  had  a  good  deal  of  the 
cunning  which  is  one  of  the  distinctive  features  of 
the  Russian  peasant,  was  the  first  to  guess  all  the 
possibilities  which  this  sudden  "engouement"  of  in- 
fluential people  for  his  person  opened  out  before  him 
and  to  what  use  it  could  be  put  for  his  ambition  as 
well  as  his  inordinate  love  of  money.  He  began  by 
exacting  a  considerable  salary  for  all  the  prayers 
which  he  was  supposed  to  say  at  the  request  of  his 


34    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

worshippers,  and  of  all  the  ladies,  fair  or  unfair,  who 
had  canonised  him  in  their  enthusiasm  for  all  the 
wonderful  things  which  he  was  continually  telling 
them.  He  was  eloquent  in  a  way  and  at  the  begin- 
ning of  his  extraordinary  thaumaturgic  existence  had 
not  yet  adopted  the  attitude  which  he  was  to  assume 
later  on — of  an  idol,  whom  every  one  had  to  adore. 

He  was  preaching  the  necessity  of  repenting  of 
one's  sins,  making  due  penance  for  them  after  a  par- 
ticular manner,  which  he  described  as  being  the  most 
agi'ceable  to  God,  and  praying  constantly  and  with 
unusual  fervour  for  the  salvation  of  orthodox  Rus- 
sia. He  contrived  most  cleverly  to  play  upon  the 
chord  of  patriotism  which  is  always  so  developed  in 
Russians,  and  to  speak  to  them  of  the  welfare  of  their 
beloved  fatherland  whenever  he  thought  it  advan- 
tageous to  his  personal  interests  to  do  so.  He  suc- 
ceeded in  inspiring  in  his  adepts  a  faith  in  his  own 
person  and  in  his  power  to  save  their  souls  akin  to  that 
which  is  to  be  met  with  in  England  and  in  America 
among  the  sect  of  the  Christian  Scientists,  and  he 
very  rapidly  became  a  kind  of  Russian  Mrs.  Eddy. 
A  few  hysterical  ladies,  who  were  addicted  to  neural- 
gia or  headaches,  suddenly  found  themselves  better 
after  having  conversed  or  prayed  with  him,  and  they 
spread  his  fame  outside  the  small  circle  which  had 
adopted  him  at  the  beginning  of  his  career.  One 
fine  day  a  personal  friend  of  the  reigning  Empress, 
Madame  Wyroubourg,  introduced  him  at  Tsarskoie 
Selo,  under  the  pretext  of  praying  for  the  health  of 
the  small  heir  to  the  Russian  throne,  who  was  occa- 


Rasputin  35 

sioning  some  anxiety  to  his  parents.     It  was  from 
that  day  that  he  became  a  personage. 

His  success  at  court  was  due  to  the  superstitious 
dread  with  which  he  contrived  to  inspire  the  Empress 
in  regard  to  her  son.  She  was  constantly  trembling 
for  him,  and  being  very  religiously  inclined,  with 
strong  leanings  toward  mysticism,  she  allowed  herself 
to  be  persuaded  more  by  the  people  who  surrounded 
her  than  by  Rasputin  himself.  She  believed  that  the 
man  of  whose  holiness  she  was  absolutely  persuaded, 
could  by  his  prayers  alone  obtain  the  protection  of  the 
Almighty  for  her  beloved  child.  An  accidental  oc- 
currence contributed  to  strengthen  her  in  this  convic- 
tion. There  were  persons  who  were  of  the  opinion 
that  the  presence  of  Rasputin  at  Tsarskoie  Selo  was 
not  advantageous  for  many  reasons.  Among  them 
was  Mr,  Stolypine,  then  Minister  of  the  Interior,  and 
he  it  was  who  made  such  strong  representations  that 
at  last  Rasputin  himself  deemed  it  advisable  to  re- 
turn to  his  native  village  of  Pokrovskoie,  in  Siberia. 
A  few  days  after  his  departure  the  little  Grand  Duke 
fell  seriously  ill  and  his  mother  became  persuaded  that 
this  was  a  punishment  for  her  having  allowed  the  va- 
grant preacher  to  be  sent  away.  Rasputin  was  re- 
called, and  after  this  no  one  ever  spoke  again  of  his 
being  removed  anywhere.  From  that  time  all  kinds 
of  adventurers  began  to  lay  siege  to  him  and  to  do 
their  utmost  to  gain  an  introduction. 

Russia  was  still  the  land  where  a  court  favourite 
was  all-powerful,  and  Rasputin  was  held  as  such,  es- 
pecially by  those  who  had  some  personal  interest  in 


36    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

representing  him  as  the  successor  to  Menschikoff  un- 
der Peter  the  Great,  Biren  under  the  Empress  Anne 
and  Orloff  under  Catherine  II.  He  acquired  a  far 
greater  influence  outside  Tsarskoie  Selo  than  he  ever 
enjoyed  in  the  imperial  residence  itself,  and  he  made 
the  best  of  it,  boasting  of  a  position  which  in  reality 
he  did  not  possess.  The  innumerable  state  function- 
aries, who  in  Russia  unfortunately  always  have  the 
last  word  to  say  everywhere  and  in  everything  and 
whose  rapacity  is  proverbial,  hastened  to  put  them- 
selves at  Ae  service  of  Rasputin  and  to  grant  him 
everything  which  he  asked,  in  the  hope  that  in  return 
he  would  make  himself  useful  to  them. 

A  kind  of  bargaining  established  itself  between 
people  desirous  of  making  a  career  and  Rasputin, 
eager  to  enrich  himself  no  matter  by  what  means. 
He  began  by  playing  the  intermediary  in  different 
financial  transactions  for  a  substantial  considera- 
tion, and  at  last  he  thought  himself  entitled  to  give 
his  attention  to  matters  of  state.  This  was  the  sad- 
dest side  of  his  remarkable  career  as  a  pseudo-Cag- 
liostro.  He  had  a  good  deal  of  natural  intelligence, 
and  while  being  the  first  to  laugh  at  fair  ladies  who 
clustered  around  him,  he  understood  at  once  that  he 
could  make  use  of  them.  This  he  did  not  fail  to  do. 
He  adopted  toward  them  the  manners  of  a  stern  mas- 
ter, and  treated  them  like  his  humble  slaves.  At  last 
he  ended  by  leading  the  existence  of  a  man  of  pleas- 
ure, denying  himself  nothing,  especially  his  fondness 
for  liquor  of  every  kind.  At  that  time  there  was  no 
prohibition  in  Russia  and,  like  all  Russian  peasants, 
Rasputin  was  very  fond  of  vodka,  to  which  he  never 


Rasputin  37 

missed  adding  a  substantial  quantity  of  champagne 
whenever  he  found  the  opportunity. 

I  shall  albstain  from  touching  upon  the  delicate 
point  of  the  orgies  to  which  it  is  related  that  Rasputin 
was  in  the  habit  of  addicting  himself,  the  more  so  be- 
cause I  do  not  really  believe  these  ever  took  place  in 
those  higher  circles  of  society  where  it  was  said  they 
regularly  occurred.  That  strange  things  may  have 
happened  among  the  common  people,  who  in  far 
greater  numbers  than  it  has  ever  been  known,  used  to 
attend  the  religious  meetings  which  he  held,  I  shall 
not  deny.  It  must  always  be  remembered  that  Ras- 
putin belonged  to  the  religious  sect  of  the  Khlysty,  of 
whose  assemblies  we  have  read  the  description,  and  it 
is  quite  likely,  and  even  probable,  that  the  assemblies 
of  these  sectarians  at  which  he  presided  were  not  dif- 
ferent from  the  others  to  which  these  heretics  crowded. 
But  I  feel  absolutely  convinced  that  as  regards  the 
relations  of  the  adventurer  with  the  numerous  ladies 
of  society  silly  enough  to  believe  in  him  and  in  his 
gifts  of  prophecy,  these  consisted  only  of  superstitious 
reverence  on  one  side  and  exploitation  of  human  stu- 
pidity on  the  other. 

I  must  once  more  insist  on  the  point  that  the  ap- 
parition of  Rasputin  in  Russian  society  had  nothing 
wonderful  about  it,  and  that  the  only  strange  thing 
is  that  such  a  fuss  was  made.  Before  his  time  people 
belonging  to  the  highest  social  circles  had  become  af- 
flicted with  religious  manias  of  one  kind  or  another 
out  of  that  natural  longing  for  something  to  believe 
in  and  to  worship  which  lies  hidden  at  the  bottom  of 
the  character  of  every  Russian  who  has  the  leisure. 


38    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

or  the  craving,  to  examine  seriously  the  difficult  and 
complicated  problems  of  a  future  life  and  of  the  faith 
one  ought  to  follow  and  to  believe  in. 

In  1817  there  was  discovered  in  the  very  heart  of 
St.  Petersburg,  holding  its  meetings  in  an  imperial 
residence  (the  Michael  Palace),  a  religious  sect  of 
most  pronounced  mystical  tendencies,  presided  over 
by  a  lady  belonging  to  the  best  circles  of  the  capital — 
the  widow  of  a  colonel,  Madame  TatarinofF.  In  her 
apartments  used  to  gather  officers.  State  function- 
aries, women  and  girls  of  good  family  and  excellent 
education  who,  with  slight  variations,  practised  all  the 
religious  rites  of  the  Khlystys.  One  of  the  Ministers 
of  Alexander  I.,  Prince  Galitzyne,  was  suspected  of 
having  honoured  these  assemblies  with  his  presence. 
Thanks  to  a  letter  which  accidentally  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  police,  the  Government  became  aware 
of  what  was  going  on,  and  Madame  TatarinofF,  this 
Russian  Madame  Guyon,  expiated  in  exile  in  a  dis- 
tant province  of  Siberia  the  ecstasies  which  she  had 
practised  and  which  she  had  allowed  others  to  prac- 
tise under  her  roof.  Some  of  her  disciples  were  pros- 
ecuted, but  the  greater  number  escaped  scot  free.  The 
authorities  did  not  care  to  increase  the  scandal  which 
this  affair  had  aroused  in  the  capital. 

Much  later,  in  1878,  after  the  Russo-Turkish  war, 
which,  like  the  Japanese  affair,  had  been  followed  by 
a  strong  revolutionary  movement  in  the  country  that 
culminated  in  the  assassination  of  the  Czar,  Alexan- 
der II.,  another  prophet,  this  time  of  foreign  origin, 
appeared  on  the  social  horizon  of  St.  Petersburg  so- 
ciety, where  he  made  a  considerable  number  of  con- 


Rasputin  39 

verts.  This  was  the  famous  Lord  Radstock,  whose 
doctrines  were  taken  up  by  a  gentleman  who  up  to 
that  time  had  been  known  as  one  of  the  gayest  among 
the  gay,  a  colonel  in  the  Guards — Mr.  Basil  Pasch- 
koff .  He  was  enormously  rich,  and  put  all  his  vast 
fortune  at  the  service  of  the  religious  craze  which  had 
seized  him.  He  used  his  best  efforts  to  convert  to 
the  doctrine  of  salvation  through  faith  only  not  alone 
his  friends  and  relatives,  but  also  the  poorer  classes 
of  the  population  of  the  capital,  devoting  in  particu- 
lar his  attention  to  the  cab  drivers.  All  these  people 
used  to  meet  at  his  house,  where  they  mingled  with 
persons  of  the  highest  rank  and  standing,  such  as 
Count  Korff,  and  a  former  Minister,  Count  Alexis 
Bobrinsky.  Later  on  the  whole  Tchertkoff  family, 
to  which  belonged  the  famous  friend  of  Count  Leo 
Tolstoy,  associated  itself  with  them,  and,  indeed,  dis- 
played the  greatest  fanaticism  in  regard  to  its  partici- 
pation in  the  doctrines  of  the  new  sect. 

The  Paschkovites,  as  they  came  to  be  called,  had 
nothing  at  all  in  common  with  the  Khlystys.  Their 
morals  were  absolutely  unimpeachable,  and  what  they 
preached  was  simply  the  necessity  to  conform  one's 
morals  were  absolutely  unimpeachable,  and  what  they 
explained  and  commented  upon,  each  person  accord- 
ing to  his  own  light.  They  were  Protestants  in  a 
certain  sense,  inasmuch  as  their  views  were  distinctly 
Protestant  ones.  But  they  had  much  more  in  com- 
mon with  the  nonconformists  than  the  real  followers 
of  Luther  or  of  Calvin.  They  were  a  kind  of  re- 
fined Salvation  Army,  if  this  expression  can  be  for- 
given me ;  though  they  never  acquired  the  importance, 


40    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

nor  did  the  good  which  the  latter  has  done,  perhaps 
because  they  could  never  make  any  practical  appli- 
cation of  the  principles  and  of  the  ideas  which  ani- 
mated them.  But  at  one  time  the  Paschkovist  craze 
was  just  as  strong  as  the  Rasputin  one  became  later 
on,  and  Lord  Radstock  and  Mr.  PaschkofF  were  con- 
sidered just  as  much  prophets  among  their  own  par- 
ticular circle  as  was  Rasputin  among  the  fanatical 
ladies  who  had  taken  him  up. 

These  crises  of  religious  mania  are  regular  occur- 
rences in  Russian  higher  social  circles  when  unusual- 
ly grave  circumstances  arrive  to  shake  their  equanim- 
ity. Seen  from  this  particular  point  of  view,  the 
apparition  of  Rasputin  and  the  importance  which  his 
personality  acquired  in  the  life  of  the  Russian  upper 
classes  present  nothing  very  wonderful.  Before  him 
other  so-called  prophets  had  kept  the  attention  of 
the  public  riveted  upon  their  doings  and  their  actions. 

What  distinguished  his  short  passage  was  the  fact 
that  it  was  made  the  occasion  by  the  natural  enemies 
of  the  empire,  consisting  of  the  discontented  at  home, 
and  of  the  Germans  outside  the  frontier,  to  discredit 
the  dynasty  as  well  as  those  whose  life  was  spent  in 
its  immediate  vicinity  and  to  present  this  figure  of 
the  vagrant  half-monk  and  half-layman,  who 
preached  a  new  relation  to  those  foolish  enough  to 
listen  to  him,  as  being  one  of  almost  gigantic  impor- 
tance, who  could  at  his  will  and  fancy  direct  the  course 
of  public  affairs  and  lead  them  wherever  he  wanted. 

My  object  in  this  study  will  be  to  show  Rasputin 
for  what  he  really  was,  and  in  retracing  the  different 
vicissitudes  of  his  strange  career,  not  to  give  way  to 


Rasputin  41 

the  many  exaggerations,  which,  in  familiarising 
people  abroad  with  his  person  and  with  his  name, 
have  made  out  of  him  something  quite  wonder- 
ful, and  almost  equal  in  power  with  the  Czar  himself. 
It  is  time  to  do  away  with  such  legends  and  to  bring 
Rasputin  back  to  his  proper  level — a  very  able  and 
cunning,  half-cultured  peasant,  who  owed  his  suc- 
cesses only  to  the  fanaticism  of  the  few,  and  to  the 
interest  which  many  had  in  dissimulating  themselves 
behind  him,  in  order  to  bring  their  personal  wishes  to 
a  successful  end.  It  is  not  Rasputin  who  performed 
most  of  the  actions  put  to  his  credit.  It  was  those 
who  influenced  him,  who  pushed  him  forward  and 
who,  thanks  to  him,  became  both  rich  and  powerful. 
He  has  disappeared.  I  wish  we  could  be  as  sure  that 
they  have  disappeared  along  with  him. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  beginning  of  the  career  of  Gregory  Rasputin 
is  shrouded  with  a  veil  of  deep  mystery.  He  was  a 
native  of  Siberia,  of  a  small  village  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Tobolsk,  called  Pokrovskoie.  Some  people 
relate  that  when  quite  a  youth  he  was  compromised  in 
a  crime  which  attracted  some  attention  at  the  time — 
the  murder  of  a  rich  merchant  who  was  travelling  from 
Omsk  to  Tobolsk  to  acquire  from  an  inhabitant  of 
the  latter  town  some  gold  diggings,  of  which  he 
wished  to  dispose.  This  merchant  was  known  to 
carry  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  as  he  never  reached 
his  destination  inquiries  were  started.  At  last  his 
body  was  found,  with  the  head  battered  by  blows, 
hidden  in  a  ditch  by  the  high  road,  together  with  that 
of  the  coachman  who  had  driven  him.  The  murderers 
were  never  discovered,  but  dark  rumours  concerning 
the  participation  of  the  youth  Rasputin  in  the  deed 
spread  all  over  the  village. 

Whether  it  was  the  desire  to  put  an  end  to  them, 
or  remorse  for  an  action  of  which  he  knew  himself  to 
be  guilty,  it  is  difficult  to  say,  but  the  fact  remains 
that  suddenly  Gricha,  as  he  was  called,  developed 
mystical  tendencies  and  took  to  attending  some  relig- 
ious meetings  at  which  a  certain  wandering  pilgrim 
used  to  preach.  The  latter  used  to  go  from  place  to 
place  in  Siberia  predicting  the  end  of  the  world  and 

42 


Rasputin  43 

the  advent  of  the  dreaded  day  of  Judgment  when 
Christ  would  once  again  appear  to  demand  from  hu- 
manity an  account  of  its  various  good  or  bad  actions. 
For  something  like  two  years  Rasputin  followed  him, 
until  at  last  he  began  himself  to  assume  the  character 
of  a  lay  preacher,  to  apply  himself  to  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures  and  to  try  to  establish  a  sect  of  his  own, 
the  principles  of  which  he  exposed  to  his  followers  in 
these  terms: 

I  am  possessed  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  it  is  only 
through  me  that  one  can  be  saved.  In  order  to  do 
so,  one  must  unite  oneself  with  me  in  body  and  soul. 
Everything  which  proceeds  from  me  is  holy,  and 
cleanses  one  from  sin. 

On  the  strength  of  this  theory,  Rasputin  declared 
that  he  could  do  whatever  he  liked  or  wished.  He  sur- 
rounded himself  with  worshippers  of  both  sexes,  who 
believed  that  by  a  close  union  with  him  they  could 
obtain  their  eternal  salvation,  together  with  divine 
forgiveness  for  any  sins  they  might  have  committed 
during  their  previous  existence. 

Strange  tales  began  to  be  related  concerning  the 
religious  assemblies  at  which  the  new  prophet  pre- 
sided. But,  nevertheless,  the  whole  village  of  Pok- 
rovskoie,  whither  he  had  returned  after  his  few  years' 
wanderings,  accepted  his  teachings  and  submitted  to^ 
his  decrees  with  scarcely  any  exceptions.  These  un- 
believers were  looked  upon  askance  by  the  majority 
of  the  inhabitants,  who  had  succumbed  to  the 
"monk's"  power  of  fascination  and  hypnotism.     It 


44    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

was  with  nothing  else  that  Rasputin  kept  his  "flock" 
subjugated.  He  introduced  among  them  the  cult 
of  his  own  person,  together  with  certain  rites  which 
he  called  "sacrifice  with  prayer." 

According  to  the  narratives  of  some  people,  who  out 
of  curiosity  had  attended  these  ceremonies,  this  is  how 
they  proceeded:  In  the  night,  as  soon  as  the  first 
stars  had  become  visible  in  the  sky,  Kasputin,  with 
the  help  of  his  disciples,  dragged  some  wood  into  a 
deep  ditch  dug  for  the  purpose  and  lighted  a  huge 
bonfire.  On  a  tripod  placed  in  the  midst  of  this  fire 
was  put  a  cup  full  of  incense  and  different  herbs, 
around  which  people  began  to  dance,  holding  them- 
selves by  the  hand  all  the  while,  and  singing  in  a  voice 
which  became  louder  and  louder  as  the  wild  exercise 
became  more  and  more  accelerated  different  hymns 
which  always  ended  with  the  phrase:  "Forgive  us  our 
sins,  O  Lord,  forgive  us  our  sins." 

The  dance  went  on  until  people  fell  exhausted  to 
the  ground  and  groans  and  tears  replaced  the  former 
singing.  The  fire  died  out  slowly  and,  when  dark- 
ness had  become  complete,  the  voice  of  Rasputin  was 
heard  calling  upon  his  disciples  to  proceed  to  the 
sacrifice  which  God  required  them  to  perform.  Then 
followed  a  scene  of  general  orgy. 

As  one  can  see  by  this  tale,  the  strange  practices 
introduced  by  the  seer,  about  whom  people  were  al- 
ready beginning  to  talk,  differed  in  no  way  from 
those  generally  in  use  among  the  Khlysty,  and,  in- 
deed, Rasputin  made  no  secret  of  his  allegiance  to 


Rasputin  45 

this  particular  form  of  heresy,  in  which,  however,  hd 
had  introduced  a  few  alterations.  For  instance,  he 
did  not  admit  that  the  souls  of  his  followers  could  be 
saved  by  a  general  prayer,  but  only  thanks  to  one  ut- 
tered in  common  with  him,  and  by  a  complete  sub- 
mission to  his  will.  Some  persons  have  alleged  that 
during  the  early  wanderings  of  Rasputin  he  had  gone 
as  far  as  China  and  Thibet,  and  there  learned  some 
Buddhist  practices,  but  this  is  hardly  probable,  as 
in  that  case  his  instruction  would  have  been  more  de- 
veloped than  it  was.  It  is  far  more  likely  that  during 
his  travels  he  had  met  with  exiled  sectarians  belong- 
ing to  the  diif  erent  persecuted  religious  Russian  com- 
munities, of  which  there  exist  so  many  in  the  whole! 
Oural  region,  and  that  they  initiated  him  into  some 
of  their  rites  and  customs.  They  also  made  him  at- 
tentive to  the  hypnotic  powers,  which  he  most  un- 
doubtedly possessed,  teaching  him  how  to  use  them 
for  his  own  benefit  and  advantage. 

Very  soon  Rasputin  found  that  Pokrovskoie  was 
not  a  field  wide  enough  for  his  energies,  and  he  took 
to  travelling,  together  with  a  crowd  of  disciples  that 
followed  him  everywhere  over  the  eastern  and  central 
Russian  provinces.  There  he  contrived  to  win  every 
day  new  adherents  to  the  doctrines  in  which  free  love 
figured  so  prominently.  Among  the  towns  where 
he  obtained  the  most  success  can  be  mentioned  those 
of  Kazan,  Saratoff,  KieiF  and  Samara. 

Concerning  his  doings  in  Kazan,  people  became  in- 
formed through  a  letter  which  one  of  his  victims  ad- 
dressed to  the  bishop  of  that  diocese,  Monsignor  Feo- 
fane,  who  had  shown  at  the  beginning  of  Rasputin's 


46    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

career  a  considerable  interest  in  him  and  who  had 
protected  him  with  great  success.  In  this  letter, 
which  later  on  found  its  way  into  the  press,  the  fol- 
lowing was  said  among  other  things: 

"Your  Reverence,  I  absolutely  fail  to  understand 
how  it  is  possible  that  you  continue  to  this  day  to 
know  and  see  Gregory  Rasputin.  He  is  Satan  in 
person  and  the  things  which  he  does  are  worthy  of 
those  that  the  Antichrist  alone  is  supposed  to  per- 
form, and  prove  that  the  latter 's  advent  is  at  hand." 

The  writer  then  proceeded  to  explain  that  Raspu- 
tin had  completely  subjugated  the  mind  of  her  two 
daughters,  one  of  whom  was  aged  twenty,  whilst  the 
second  had  not  yet  attained  her  sixteenth  year. 

"One  afternoon,"  writes  this  unfortunate  mother, 
"I  met  in  the  street,  coming  out  of  a  bathhouse, 
Rasputin,  together  with  my  two  girls.  One  must  be 
a  mother  to  understand  the  feelings  which  over- 
powered me  at  this  sight.  I  could  find  no  words  to 
say,  but  remained  standing  motionless  and  silent 
before  them.  The  prophet  turned  to  me  and  slowly 
said :  'Now  you  may  feel  at  peace,  the  day  of  sal- 
vation has  dawned  for  your  daughters!'  " 

Another  woman,  who  had  also  fallen  under  the  spell 
of  Rasputin,  wrote  as  follows  about  him : 

"I  left  my  parents,  to  whom  I  was  tenderly  at- 
tached, to  follow  the  prophet.  One  day  when  we 
were  travelling  together  in  a  reserved  first-class 


Rasputin  47 

carriage,  talking  about  the  salvation  of  souls  and 
the  means  to  become  a  true  child  of  God,  he  sud- 
denly got  up,  approached  me,  and  *  *  *  pro- 
ceeded to  cleanse  me  of  all  my  sins.  Towards 
evening  I  became  anxious  and  asked  him:  'Per- 
haps what  we  have  been  doing  to-day  was  a  sin, 
Gregory  Efimitsch?'  'No,  my  daughter,'  he  re- 
plied, 'it  was  not  a  sin.  Our  affections  are  a  gift 
from  God,  which  we  may  use  as  freely  as  we 
like.'  " 

Bishop  Feofane  finally  was  obliged  to  recognise  the 
evil  which  Rasputin  was  constantly  doing,  and  he  bit- 
terly repented  having  been  taken  in  by  him  and  by 
his  hypocrisy.  He  reproached  himself  especially  for 
having  given  him  a  letter  of  recommendation  to  the 
famous  Father  John  of  Cronstadt,  through  whom 
Rasputin  was  to  become  acquainted  with  some  of  the 
people  who  were  later  on  to  pilot  him  in  the  society  of 
St.  Petersburg.  The  bishop  was  not  a  clever  man 
by  any  means,  but  he  had  been  sincere  in  his  admira- 
tion for  Rasputin,  a  fact  which  added  to  the  conster- 
nation that  overpowered  him  when  the  truth  about  the 
famous  sectarian  became  known  to  him.  He  assem- 
bled a  kind  of  judicial  court,  composed  of  one  bishop, 
one  monk  and  three  well-known  and  highly  respected 
civil  functionaries,  and  called  upon  the  prophet  to 
come  and  explain  himself  before  this  court  as  to  the 
actions  which  were  imputed  to  him.  Among  these 
figured  his  general  conduct  in  regard  to  the  women 
who  had  enrolled  themselves  in  the  ranks  of  his  dis- 
ciples.    But  somehow  the  adventurer  succeeded  in 


48    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

dispelling  the  suspicions  that  had  become  attached  to 
his  name  and  conduct,  and  he  explained  in  a  more  or 
less  plausible  manner  the  things  which  had  been  told 
about  him.  His  leanings  towards  feminine  society, 
and  his  invariable  custom  of  bathing  with  women,  he 
declared  to  be  quite  innocent  things,  and  only  a  proof 
of  his  desire  to  show  that  it  was  quite  possible  for 
human  beings  to  rise  above  every  kind  of  carnal 
temptation. 

In  spite  of  this  episode,  which  would  have  inter- 
fered with  the  career  of  any  one  but  Rasputin,  the 
fame  of  the  latter  grew  with  every  day  that  passed. 
He  established  himself  at  last  in  the  town  of  Tinmen 
in  Siberia,  where  he  hired  the  whole  of  a  large  house 
for  himself  and  some  of  his  most  favoured  disciples, 
and  he  began  to  turn  his  activity  into  another  and  more 
profitable  channel.  He  established  reception  hours 
every  day,  when  all  his  followers,  admirers  and  friends 
could  come  to  speak  with  him  about  any  business  they 
liked.  Hundreds  of  people  used  to  attend  those  re- 
ceptions, among  them  some  very  influential  persons 
curious  to  see  and  speak  with  the  modern  Peter  the 
Hermit,  who  declared  that  he  had  been  called  by  God 
to  save  Holy  Russia.  In  some  mysterious  manner 
he  acquired  the  reputation  of  having  great  influence 
in  high  quarters,  where  (this  must  be  noticed)  he  was 
at  the  time  still  quite  unknown.  Governors  fearing 
dismissal,  rapacious  functionaries  whose  exactions 
had  become  too  flagrant,  as  well  as  business  men  in 
quest  of  some  good  "geschaft,"  to  use  the  German  ex- 
pression employed  before  the  war  among  financial 
circles  in  Russia,  crowded  round  him,  waiting  some- 


Rasputin  49 

times  hours  for  an  opportunity  to  speak  with  him,  and 
fully  believing  in  his  capacities  for  obtaining  what 
they  required. 

Rasputin  soon  became  a  kind  of  business  agent  and 
surrounded  himself  with  a  number  of  secretaries  of 
both  sexes,  whose  occupation  consisted  in  attending 
to  his  correspondence — he  could  himself  hardly  read 
or  write — and  in  receiving  the  numerous  offerings 
which  were  being  brought  to  him  daily.  These  secre- 
taries, among  whom  figured  a  sister  of  the  Bishop  of 
Saratoff,  Warnava,  made  an  immense  amount  of 
money  themselves  because  no  one  was  ever  admitted 
into  the  presence  of  Rasputin  without  having  previ- 
ously paid  dearly  for  this  favour.  Very  soon  they  es- 
tablished a  tax  in  regard  to  the  audiences  granted  by 
their  master. 

Besides  this  sister  of  Bishop  Warnava,  Rasputin 
had  another  female  secretary,  and  they  both  accom- 
panied him  in  all  his  travels,  calling  themselves  his 
spiritual  sisters.  They  constituted,  so  to  say,  his 
bodyguard,  and  wherever  he  went,  even  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, they  never  left  off  attending  him  and  seeing  to 
all  his  wants.  They  were  the  channel  through  which 
everything  had  to  go,  and  without  their  consent  no 
one  was  ever  admitted  into  the  presence  of  the 
"Saint,"  as  they  already  had  begun  to  call  him. 

Gregory  Rasputin  very  often  used  to  visit  Tobolsk, 
where  he  was  always  received  with  great  ceremony 
and  pomp,  as  if  he  had  been  really  the  important  per- 
sonage he  believed  himself.  The  policeman  in  the 
streets  saluted  him  as  he  passed ;  the  carriage  in  which 
he  drove  was  escorted  or  preceded  by  a  high  police 


50    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

functionary,  and  the  governor  asked  him  to  dinner. 
The  same  kind  of  thing  used  to  take  place  in  other 
Siberian  cities.  In  one  of  them  the  staterooms  re- 
served at  the  railway  station  for  any  high  authority 
on  a  visit  to  the  place  were  thrown  open  to  him.  In 
another  triumphal  arches  were  erected  in  his  honour, 
while  in  a  third  he  was  met  by  deputations  in  the 
midst  of  which  could  be  seen  civil  functionaries  and 
religious  dignitaries. 

How  all  this  happened  no  one  knew  or  could  ex- 
plain. In  what  consisted  the  fame  of  Rasputin  and 
what  he  had  done  to  deserve  all  these  honours  nobody 
could  tell.  But  fame  he  had  acquired,  honours  he 
had  obtained,  and  where  another  person  gifted  with  a 
smaller  amount  of  impudence  than  he  was  possessed 
of,  would  have  been  put  into  prison  or  sent  to  a  mad- 
house, Gricha  had  it  all  his  own  way,  and  defied  gov- 
ernors and  judges  with  an  equal  indifference,  sure 
that  none  among  them  would  be  daring  enough  to 
try  to  put  a  stop  to  his  progress  or  to  his  avidity. 

Most  friendly,  not  to  say  intimate,  relations  were 
established  between  Rasputin  and  Bishop  Warnava, 
especially  after  the  latter's  elevation  to  the  Episcopal 
See  of  Tobolsk.  The  first  sermon  which  Warnava 
preached  in  that  town  he  dedicated  to  the  wife  of 
Rasputin.  One  need  not  say  that  the  whole  clergy 
of  the  town  and  of  the  diocese  trembled  before  Raspu- 
tin, who  did  not  fail  to  exact  from  it  large  sums  of 
money,  which  he  extorted,  thanks  to  the  promises 
which  he  made  but  never  meant  in  the  least  to  keep. 

During  the  course  of  the  year  1909  complaints 
about  Rasputin's  behaviour  increased  to  a  consider- 


Rasputin  51 

able  extent.  He  was  once  more  called  before  an  ec- 
clesiastical court  to  give  explanations  in  regard  to  his 
general  conduct.  Among  his  judges  figured  again 
Bishop  Feofane.  This  time  Rasputin  could  not  clear 
himself  of  the  charges  preferred  against  him,  and  he 
was  invited  to  retire  for  one  year  into  a  monastery  by 
way  of  penance.  But  Rasputin  refused  to  submit 
to  this  sentence  and  categorically  declined  to  do 
as  he  had  been  told.  He  gave  as  a  reason  for  his 
disobedience  to  the  commands  of  his  ecclesiastical  su- 
periors that  his  conscience  obliged  him  to  resist  be- 
cause it  would  be  impossible  for  his  "spiritual  sisters 
and  daughters"  to  accompany  him  in  his  retreat  and 
live  together  with  him  in  the  monastery  they  wished 
him  to  enter. 

At  the  time  this  incident  took  place  Rasputin  was 
already  living  in  St.  Petersburg,  whither  he  had  re- 
paired on  the  invitation  of  some  of  his  admirers  and 
protectors,  who  had  the  opportunity  to  listen  to  his 
preachings  in  Kieff  and  other  Russian  towns.  Among 
them  figured  the  Countess  Sophy  Ignatieff,  a  woman 
of  high  standing,  irreproachable  reputation  and  great 
influence  in  some  circles  of  the  capital,  where  her  sa- 
lon was  considered  the  centre  of  the  conservative  or- 
thodox party.  Bishops  and  priests  figured  among 
her  daily  visitors,  and  it  was  among  her  habitues  that 
the  most  important  ecclesiastical  appointments  in  the 
Empire  were  discussed.  Often  it  was  the  candidates 
whom  she  honoured  with  her  protection  who  were 
chosen  for  a  bishop's  place  or  for  that  of  a  superior 
to  one  of  those  rich  monasteries  the  heads  of  which 
are  quite  personages  in  the  state. 


52    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

The  Countess  was  already  an  old  woman,  widow 
of  a  man  who  had  been  murdered  during  the  revolu- 
tion of  1905,  and,  incapable  of  being  even  sus- 
pected of  any  frailties  of  conduct.  She  was  the 
mother  of  a  large  family,  and  though  by  no  means 
brilliant,  was  yet  clever  in  her  way,  with  a  slight  pro- 
pensity to  intrigue.  She  was  extremely  devout,  with 
a  strong  tendency  to  exaltation  where  religious  mat- 
ters came  into  question,  and  was  continually  lament- 
ing what  she  called  the  relaxation  of  modern  society 
in  those  practices  of  strict  church  discipline  which 
Russians  belonging  to  the  higher  classes  have  lately 
taken  to  forgetting.  She  would  not  have  missed  at- 
tending any  of  the  long  Church  services,  sometimes  so 
tiring  in  the  Orthodox  faith,  which  are  celebrated  on 
Sundays  and  many  feast  days,  and  she  strictly  fasted 
at  prescribed  times.  Indeed,  her  whole  existence 
was,  as  regards  its  daily  routine,  more  that  of  a  nun 
than  of  a  woman  of  the  world.  But  for  all  that,  she 
liked  to  keep  herself  well  infomied  as  to  all  that  was 
going  on  around  her,  and  politics  was  her  especial 
hobby. 

Among  those  who  frequented  her  house  were  Mr. 
Sabler,  then  Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod,  together 
with  his  future  successor,  Mr.  Loukianoff ;  a  good 
sprinkling  of  ministers — she  was  distantly  related  to 
Mr.  Stolypine,  a  fact  that  had  considerably  added  to 
her  importance  during  the  latter's  lifetime — and  a 
few  influential  dames  belonging  to  the  immediate 
circle  of  friends  of  the  imperial  family.  All  this 
constituted  a  coterie  that  had  gradually  assumed  per- 
haps more  importance  than  it  really  deserved,  but 


Rasputin  53 

that  brought  into  St.  Petersburg  society  an  element 
with  which  it  would  not  have  been  wise  to  trifle  and 
which  it  was  impossible  to  overlook,  for  any  one  car- 
ing to  concern  himself  or  herself  with  the  course  that 
public  affairs  were  taking  and  assuming. 

A  few  years  before  the  time  I  am  referring  to,  that 
is  about  1908  or  1909,  a  good  deal  of  interest  was  ex- 
cited not  only  in  St.  Petersburg,  but  in  the  whole  of 
Russia,  by  a  monk  called  Illiodore,  who  also  preached 
a  new  gospel  to  those  willing  to  listen.  There  was, 
however,  about  him  none  of  the  peculiarities  which 
distinguished  Rasputin,  and  no  one  had  ever  found 
one  word  to  say  against  his  morals.  But  he  tried  also 
*to  found  a  religion  of  his  own  in  the  sense  that  he  at- 
tempted to  develop  on  a  higher  scale,  and  with  certain 
Protestant  leanings,  the  feelings  of  fervour  of  the 
people.  At  Saratoff,  where  he  lived,  he  did  a  great 
deal  of  good,  and  he  had  built  there  a  large  church. 
Orthodox,  of  course,  which  soon  became  a  centre  of 
pilgrimage  to  which  flocked  thousands  and  thousands 
of  people  desirous  of  hearing  him  and  of  listening  to 
his  inflamed  speeches.  They  reminded  one  of  those 
crusades  that  in  the  Middle  Ages  had  stirred  whole 
nations  to  rise  and  rush  to  deliver  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
from  the  yoke  of  the  infidels.  He  was  far  more  a 
Peter  the  Hermit  than  Rasputin,  and  had,  moreover, 
education,  which  the  other  lacked. 

But  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  St.  Petersburg  did 
not  approve  of  his  teachings,  and  he  soon  came  into 
conflict  with  them,  together  with  the  Bishop  of  Sara- 
toff*, who  had  all  along  supported  him  and  who  con- 
sidered him  as  being  really  a  good  and  pious  man. 


54    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

This  conflict  led  to  a  quarrel,  the  result  of  which  was 
that  Illiodore  was  confined  in  a  monastery,  whence, 
however,  with  the  help  of  his  disciples  and  adherents, 
he  contrived  to  make  his  escape.  There  was  also  a 
whole  series  of  lawsuits,  into  the  details  of  which  it  is 
useless  to  enter  here.  At  last  the  monk  was  un- 
frocked for  rebellion  to  his  superiors,  by  a  decree  is- 
sued from  the  Holy  Synod,  and  compelled  to  take 
back  his  secular  name  of  Trufanoff.  He  became 
fearful  of  further  annoyance  and  managed  to  get 
hold  of  a  false  passport,  with  the  help  of  which  he 
made  his  way  into  Norway,  where  we  shall  find  him 
presently  mixed  up  in  a  most  extraordinary  adven- 
ture with  which  Rasputin  was  concerned.  But  be- 
fore all  this  had  occurred  there  was  a  brief  period 
when  Illiodore  was  quite  an  important  personage  in 
Russia,  and  the  salons  of  the  Countess  IgnatiefF  and 
of  other  ultra-devout  ladies  used  to  see  a  lot  of  him 
whenever  he  happened  to  be  in  St.  Petersburg. 
These  feminine  listeners  were  very  fond  of  him,  and 
did  their  best  to  spread  his  reputation  all  over  the 
capital. 

During  Rasputin's  wanderings  he  had  come  across 
Illiodore  at  SaratofF,  and  the  latter,  like  so  many 
others  before  and  after  him,  had  succumbed  to  the 
hypnotic  spell  which  "Gricha"  was  casting  around 
him.  He  had  believed  him  to  be  a  real  servant  of 
God,  and  he  had  engaged  him  to  come  to  St.  Peters- 
burg and  to  preach  there  before  some  of  the  people 
who  had  already  listened  to  his  (Illiodore's)  sermons. 
He  had  introduced  him  to  the  celebrated  Father  John 
of  Cronstadt,  this  saintly  priest  who  was  so  famous 


Rasputin  55 

for  his  virtues  and  his  good  deeds.  And,  strange 
though  this  may  appear,  Father  John  also  had  been 
struck  by  Rasputin's  eloquence  and  had  believed  him 
to  be  really  inspired  by  the  Lord.  In  order  to  explain 
the  state  of  mind  prevalent  at  the  time  among  the 
orthodox  clergy  one  must  say  that  the  clergy,  or  at 
least  some  of  their  important  members,  were  trying  to 
bring  about  a  revival  of  religious  fervour  in  the  Ortho- 
dox Church,  especially  among  persons  belonging  to 
the  upper  classes,  who  had,  during  the  last  twenty-five 
years  or  so,  become  more  than  indifferent  in  regard 
to  spiritual  matters,  and  who  had  considered  religion 
more  a  question  of  "convenience"  than  anything  else. 
Since  the  religious  censorship  had  been  suppressed 
and  books  to  any  amount  treating  of  every  conceiv- 
able subject  had  been  allowed  to  circulate  freely  in 
the  country,  the  former  attachment  to  the  Mother 
Church  had  waxed  fainter  and  fainter,  until  this 
Church  appeared  in  the  eyes  of  many  as  simply  a 
question  of  good  breeding,  to  which  it  was  necessary 
to  conform  when  one  belonged  to  good  society,  but 
which,  beyond  this,  was  treated  entirely  as  a  matter 
devoid  of  importance. 

In  view  of  this  fact,  those  Prelates  and  Dignitaries 
who  lamented  over  this  state  of  things  were  not 
sorry  to  find  that  there  were  still  in  the  world  peo- 
ple capable  of  arousing  in  the  minds  of  others  an 
interest  in  religion  and  religious  matters.  This  ex- 
plains partly  why  the  craze  which  seized  some  persons 
in  regard  to  Illiodore  at  first,  and  to  Rasputin  later 
on,  was  not  viewed  with  the  dissatisfaction  one  might 
have  expected  by  the  Russian  ecclesiastical  authori- 


56    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ties.  They  argued  that  surely  it  was  better  for  people 
to  pray  in  the  way  these  two  so-called  "sainlts"  told 
them  to  do  than  not  to  pray  at  all.  It  was  only  much 
later,  after  Illiodore's  rebellion  to  the  orders  of  his 
superiors,  and  Rasputin's  ever-growing  personal  in- 
fluence had  begun  to  alarm  them,  that  there  were 
found  some  bishops  in  Russia  who  made  a  stand 
against  both,  until  at  last  a  catastrophe  removed  these 
two  men  from  the  scene  of  their  previous  labours  and 
successes. 

Rasputin  and  Illiodore  were  in  time  to  become  mor- 
tal enemies,  but  at  first  a  great  friendship  united  them, 
and  when  Rasputin  was  sentenced  to  enter  a  convent 
in  the  manner  already  related,  Illiodore  took  up  his 
cause  most  warmly  and  telegraphed  to  one  of  the  for- 
mer's admirers,  an  ecclesiastic  of  high  rank  in  St. 
Petersburg,  in  the  following  terms:  "Neither  Bishop 
Feofane  nor  Archimandrite  Serge  has  behaved  fairly 
in  regard  to  the  'Blessed  Grigory.'  "  Illiodore's  ef- 
forts, however,  did  not  avail  and  Rasputin  was  or- 
dered to  leave  the  capital  immediately.  But  instead 
of  being  compelled  to  enter  the  convent  whither  they 
had  wished  to  confine  him  at  first,  he  was  allowed  to 
return  to  his  native  village  of  Pokrovskoie.  Before 
doing  so  he  bethought  himself  of  calling  on  his  for- 
mer patron.  Bishop  Feofane,  but  the  latter  met  him 
with  the  exclamation,  "Don't  approach  me,  Satan! 
Thou  art  not  a  blessed  thing,  but  only  a  vulgar  de- 
ceiver!" At  Pokrovskoie  Rasputin  surrounded  him- 
self with  twelve  sisters,  of  whom  the  oldest  was  barely 
twenty-nine  years  of  age.  They  all  lived  in  his  house, 
which  was  extremely  well  arranged  and  richly  furn- 


Rasputin  57 

ished.  Rasputin's  wife,  together  with  her  children, 
was  also  there  and  occupied  a  suite  of  five  rooms, 
whilst  each  of  the  sisters  had  a  separate  room  to  her- 
self. 

People  wondered  that  the  woman  who  ought  to 
have  been  the  sole  mistress  in  the  place  had  consented 
to  share  her  authority  with  all  these  girls,  and  some 
even  thought  that  she  was  just  as  bad  as  her  hus- 
band. In  reality,  the  "Prophet's"  consort  had  done 
all  that  she  could  to  persuade  her  husband  to  give  up 
the  "mission"  which  he  declared  had  been  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  Almighty  and  to  return  to  his  for- 
mer life  of  a  simple  peasant.  Her  efforts  had  re- 
mained fruitless,  and  Rasputin  had  replied  to  all  her 
entreaties  that  his  past  existence  had  come  forever  to 
an  end,  and  that  he  knew  his  star  was  about  to  shine 
in  a  wonderful  way  within  a  short  time.  He  com- 
manded his  wife  not  to  attempt  to  interfere  in  the 
matter  of  his  own  personal  relations  with  the  "Sis- 
ters" living  under  their  roof.  Though  she  tried  to  sub- 
mit to  his  will,  yet  there  were  occasions  when  terrible 
scenes  occurred  between  husband  and  wife.  Then  the 
latter  would  attack  violently  the  girls,  whom  she  ac- 
cused of  all  kinds  of  dreadful  things,  and  would  then 
fall  on  the  ground  in  attacks  of  strong  hysterics, 
screaming  so  dreadfully  that  people  heard  her  from 
the  street.  But  tears  and  submission  were  equally 
of  no  avail  and  Rasputin  did  not  trouble  about  his 
wife's  rage  or  grief  any  more  than  he  had  troubled  in 
general  with  any  other  impediment  he  had  found  in 
his  way.    As  concerns  the  kind  of  life  which  the  "Sis- 


58     Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ters"  were  leading  at  Pokrovskoie  this  is  how  one  of 
them  describes  it: 

It  is  now  already  six  months  since  I  am  here, 
living  in  a  kind  of  nightmare.  I  do  not  know  to 
this  day  whether  the  "Blessed"  Gricha  is  a  saint 
or  the  greatest  sinner  the  earth  has  ever  known. 
I  cannot  find  a  quiet  place  in  this  miserable  village. 
I  would  like  to  run  away,  to  return  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, but  I  dare  not  do  so.  I  am  so  afraid,  so  ter- 
ribly afraid  of  the  "Blessed"  one.  His  large,  grey, 
piercing  eyes  crush  me,  enter  into  my  very  soul  and 
absolutely  terrify  me.  At  a  distance  of  5,000  versts 
I  feel  his  presence  near  me.  I  feel  that  he  has  got 
extraordinary  powers,  that  he  can  do  everything 
that  he  wishes  with  me. 

For  two  whole  years  Rasputin  was  not  allowed  to 
show  himself  in  the  Russian  capital,  but  the  influen- 
tial friends  he  had  there  never  left  off  trying  to  get 
the  decree  of  banishment  rescinded.  Among  others, 
the  Archbishop  of  Saratoff,  Hermogene,  and  Illio- 
dore  worked  most  actively  in  his  favour,  and  the  lat- 
ter in  one  of  his  sermons  did  not  hesitate  to  call  Ras- 
putin the  "greatest  saint  which  the  modern  Russian 
Church  had  ever  known."  At  last  the  efforts  of  his 
friends  proved  successful  and  Rasputin,  toward  the 
end  of  the  year  1912,  reappeared  in  St.  Petersburg, 
where  this  time  his  progress  was  far  more  rapid  than 
it  had  been  formerly,  and  here  his  reputation  of  a  lat- 
ter-day saint  grew  with  every  hour,  until  at  last  he 
came  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  real  manifestation  of  the 
Divinity  upon  earth. 


Rasputin  59 

It  was  about  that  time  that  he  was  seen  more  fre- 
quently at  Tsarskoie  Selo,  where  the  poor  Empress 
was  eating  her  heart  away  in  anxiety  over  the  health 
of  her  only  son,  the  little  heir  to  the  throne,  whose 
days  seemed  to  be  numbered.  Rasputin,  who  had  been 
introduced  to  her  as  a  pious,  good  man,  whose  prayers 
had  already  worked  miracles,  was  very  quickly  able 
to  influence  her  in  the  sense  that  he  persuaded  her 
that  the  small  Grand  Duke  could  only  be  cured  if 
constant  praj^ers  were  said  for  him  by  people  who 
were  agreeable  to  the  Lord.  It  is  not  to  be  denied 
that  the  pseudo-saint  had  cultivated  to  a  considerable 
extent  the  science  of  hypnotism  and  that  he  used  it 
in  regard  to  the  consort  of  the  sovereign  in  the  sense 
that  she  grew  really  to  believe  that  the  presence  of  the 
"Prophet"  by  the  side  of  her  sick  child  might  cure  the 
latter.  There  was  nothing  else  in  their  relations  to 
each  other,  which  remained  always,  in  spite  of  all  that 
has  been  said,  purelj'-  official  ones. 

Rasputin  was  far  too  clever  ever  to  say  one  word 
capable  of  offending  the  Empress,  whose  proud  tem- 
perament would  never  have  forgiven  him  any  famil- 
iarity had  he  dared  to  venture  upon  it.  Whenever  he 
was  m  her  presence  he  kept  a  most  humble  attitude, 
and  certainly  never  discussed  with  her  any  matters  of 
state  and  never  dared  entertain  her  with  aught  else 
than  religious  questions.  He  was  far  less  guarded 
with  regard  to  what  he  told  the  Emperor,  with  whom 
it  is  unfortunately  true  that  he  sometimes  allowed 
himself  remarks  he  would  have  done  better  to  keep  to 
himself.  But  the  Czar  never  looked  upon  him  in  any 
other  light  than  in  that  of  a  jester  whose  sayings  were 


6o    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

absolutely  devoid  of  any  importance  whatever,  but 
who  could  amuse  him  at  times  by  the  daring  manner 
in  which  he  would  touch  upon  things  and  criticise  peo- 
ple whose  names  no  one  else  would  ever  have  dared  to 
mention  in  a  disparaging  tone  before  Nicholas  II. 
But  between  that  and  the  possession  of  any  real  power 
and  influence,  there  was  an  abyss  which,  unfortunate- 
ly, in  view  of  the  turn  that  events  were  to  take,  no 
one  noticed  among  all  those  who  lamented  over  the 
almost  constant  presence  of  Rasputin  at  Tsarskoie 
Selo. 

All  that  I  have  said,  however,  refers  only  to  the 
Emperor  and  Empress.  In  regard  to  some  people 
who  surrounded  them  it  was  not  quite  the  same.  It 
is  certain  that  from  the  first  day  that  the  "Prophet" 
was  introduced  at  Tsarskoie  Selo  some  intriguing 
persons  applied  themselves  to  make  use  of  him  for 
their  own  special  benefit  and  advantage,  and  tried 
to  create  around  him  a  legend  that  had  hardly  any- 
thing in  common  with  the  real  truth.  It  is  useless  to 
mention  the  names  of  these  people,  whose  influence  it 
must  be  hoped  is  now  at  an  end.  But  it  is  impossible 
not  to  speak  of  their  activity  in  regard  to  the  spread- 
ing of  these  rumours  which  attributed  to  Rasputin  an 
importance  he  was  never  really  in  possession  of.  This 
caused  no  small  damage  to  the  prestige  of  the  dy- 
nasty. Rasputin  ought  to  have  been  considered  for 
what  he  was — that  is,  a  kind  of  jester,  "un  fou  du  roi," 
who,  like  Chicot  in  Dumas'  famous  novels,  allowed 
himself  to  say  all  that  he  thought  to  his  sovereign  and 
whose  words  or  actions  no  one  could  take  seriously 
into  account.     Instead  of  this  some  ambitious  men 


Rasputin  6i 

and  women,  mostly  belonging  to  that  special  class  of 
Tchinovnikis  or  civil  functionaries  that  has  always 
been  the  curse  of  Russia  and  that,  happily,  is  losing 
every  day  something  of  its  former  power,  profited  by 
the  circumstance  that  the  solitary  existence  led  by  the 
Imperial  Court  in  its  various  residences  did  not  allow 
any  outside  rumours  to  penetrate  to  the  ears  of  the 
rulers  of  the  country.  They  intentionally  trans- 
formed Rasputin  into  a  kind  of  deus  ex  machinal 
whose  hand  could  be  traced  in  every  event  of  impor- 
tance which  occurred  and  who  could  at  will  remove 
and  appoint  Ministers,  generals,  ladies  in  waiting, 
court  officials  and  at  last  induce  the  Czar  himself  to 
deprive  his  uncle,  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  of  the 
supreme  command  of  the  army  and  to  assume  it  him- 
self. 

These  diiferent  tales  were  repeated  and  carried 
about  all  over  Russia  with  alacrity,  and  all  the  ene- 
mies of  the  reigning  house  rejoiced  in  hearing  them. 
They  were  untrue  nine  times  out  of  ten,  and  gener- 
ally invented  for  a  purpose.  Rasputin  did  not  influ- 
ence the  Czar,  who  is  far  too  intelligent  to  have  ever 
allowed  this  uneducated  peasant  to  guide  or  to  ad- 
vise him,  but  unfortunately  he  influenced  other  peo- 
ple, who  really  believed  him  to  be  all  powerful.  A 
kind  of  camarilla  formed  itself  around  Rasputin  that 
clung  to  him  and  used  him  for  its  own  purposes,  and 
that  went  about  saying  that  he  was  the  only  man  in 
the  whole  of  Russia  capable  of  obtaining  what  one 
wanted,  provided  it  pleased  him  to  do  so.  One  de- 
clared that  he  could  persuade  the  Empress,  always 
trembling  for  the  health  of  her  only  son,  to  discuss* 


62    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

with  her  imperial  spouse  any  subject  that  he  might 
suggest.  In  reahty  no  such  thing  ever  took  place. 
Alexandra  Feodorovna  always  kept  Rasputin  at 
arms'  length,  and  for  one  thing  had  far  too  much  faith 
in  his  absolute  disinterestedness  even  to  imagine  of- 
fering him  any  reward  or  gratification.  But  it  is  a 
fact  that  he  was  often  called  by  her  to  pray  at  the 
bedside  of  the  little  boy,  who  represented  the  best 
hope  of  Russia.  This  circumstance  was  cleverly  ex- 
ploited. No  one  was  ever  present  at  his  interviews 
with  the  Czar  or  with  the  Empress;  it  was  therefore 
easy  for  him  to  say  what  he  liked  about  them,  certain 
that  no  one  could  ever  contradict  him,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  interested  persons  themselves,  and  these 
could  never  get  to  hear  or  to  learn  anything  about  the 
wild  tales  which  it  pleased  him,  together  with  his 
friends,  to  put  into  circulation  regarding  the  position 
which  he  occupied  at  the  court.  Thanks  to  his  per- 
suasive powers  and  to  the  undoubted  magnetic  force 
he  was  possessed  of,  he  contrived  to  imbue  even 
earnest  and  serious  people  with  the  conviction  that  he 
was  at  times  the  echo  of  the  voices  of  those  placed  far 
above  him,  and  that  they  had  called  upon  him  to  say 
to  others  what  it  embarrassed  them  to  mention  them- 
selves. 

In  Russia,  as  a  general  rule,  the  people  in  power 
were  all  cringing  before  the  Czar,  whom  they  never 
dared  to  contradict.  There  were  at  the  time  I  am 
writing  about  some  Ministers  who  believed,  or  af- 
fected to  believe,  in  all  the  extraordinary  tales  which 
it  pleased  Rasputin  to  repeat,  and  who  thought  it 
useful  to  follow  the  indications  which  it  pleased  him 


Rasputin  63 

to  give  to  them.  He  was  only  too  delighted  to  be  con- 
sidered the  most  powerful  personage  in  the  whole  of 
the  Russian  Empire.  He  helped  as  much  as  he  could 
to  accredit  all  the  legends  going  about  among  the  pub- 
lic in  regard  to  his  own  person,  and  he  imagined  that 
the  best  way  to  add  to  his  reputation  as  a  man  who  did 
not  care  for  the  opinions  of  the  world  was  to  treat  this 
world  with  disdain  and  with  contempt,  and  to  trans- 
form into  his  humble  slaves  ladies  belonging  to  the 
highest  social  ranks,  just  as  he  had  transformed  into 
his  hand-maidens  the  peasant  girls  who  had  fallen 
under  his  spell. 

That  he  magnetised  most  of  the  people  with  whom 
he  prayed  seems  but  too  true.  Perhaps  they  did  not 
notice  it,  and  perhaps  this  was  done  with  the  consent 
of  those  on  whom  he  exercised  his  hypnotic  strength — 
it  is  difficult  to  know  exactly — but  that  his  prayer 
meetings  were  the  scene  of  spiritist  and  magnetic  ex- 
periences all  who  have  ever  been  present  agree  in  say- 
ing. He  made  no  secret  about  the  fact,  and  openly 
acknowledged  the  use  which  he  made  of  the  state  of 
trance  in  which  he  liked  to  throw  his  disciples,  espe- 
cially those  belonging  to  the  weaker  sex.  He  prac- 
ticed to  the  full  all  the  customs  of  the  "Khlystys,"  but 
he  added  to  them  a  cunning  such  as  is  but  rarely 
found  in  a  human  being,  and  a  rough  knowledge  of 
human  nature  which  gave  him  the  facility  to  exploit 
the  passions  of  the  many  vile  people  who  thought  that 
he  was  their  instrument  while  in  reality  it  was  they 
who  were  playing  fiddle  to  his  tune. 

After  his  return  to  St.  Petersburg  he  applied  him- 
self to  the  task  of  setting  aside  all  his  former  patrons. 


64    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

such  as  lUiodore,  against  whom  he  contrived  to  irri- 
tate several  important  members  of  the  Holy  Synod 
with  false  reports  about  remarks  which  the  now  dis- 
graced monk  was  supposed  to  have  made.  He  con- 
trived also  to  bring  about  the  exile  of  the  Archbishop 
of  Saratoff,  Hermogene,  from  whom  he  feared  dis- 
agreeable revelations  concerning  his  own  past  life  and 
certain  episodes  connected  with  the  days  when  he  had 
preached  his  so-called  doctrine  in  the  town  and  gov- 
ernment of  Saratoff.  On  the  other  hand,  he  toadied 
to  other  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  eager  for  promotion, 
and  in  that  way  obtained  their  support  in  the  Synod. 
Very  soon  he  turned  his  thoughts  to  more  practical 
subjects  than  religious  fervour  or  religious  reforms, 
and  sought  the  society  of  business  and  financial  peo- 
ple. Among  these  he  soon  obtained  the  opportunities 
he  longed  for  and  established  a  kind  of  large  shop  or 
concern  where  everything  in  the  world  could  be 
bought  or  sold,  from  a  pound  of  butter  to  a  minister's 
portfolio. 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  there  was  a  time 
when  nothing  of  importance  ever  occurred  in  the  po- 
litical, social  and  administrative  life  of  the  Russian 
capital  that  was  not  attributed  to  Rasputin,  and  the 
result  of  this  was  that  there  crowded  about  him  all 
kinds  of  dark  personalities,  who  hoped,  thanks  to  his 
support  and  influence,  to  obtain  this  or  that  favour. 
Everything  interested  him,  everything  attracted  his 
attention;  railway  concessions,  bank  emissions,  stock 
exchange  speculations,  purchase  of  properties,  acqui- 
sition of  shares  in  industrial  concerns,  arranging  of 
loans  for  persons  in  need  of  them — nothing  seemed 


Rasputin  65 

too  small  or  too  important  for  his  activity.  He  liked 
to  think  himself  necessary  to  all  these  high-born  peo- 
ple, whom  he  compelled  to  wait  for  hours  in  his  ante- 
chambers, just  as  if  he  had  been  a  sovereign.  And 
for  every  favour  he  gi-anted,  for  every  word  which  he 
promised  to  say,  he  exacted  payment  in  the  shape  of 
a  pound  of  flesh,  which  consisted,  according  to  cir- 
cumstances, in  a  more  or  less  important  commission. 
Ministers  and  functionaries  feared  him.  They 
knew  that  he  could  do  them  an  infinitude  of  harm  by 
causing  to  be  circulated  against  them  rumours  of  a 
damaging  character,  the  result  of  which  would  have 
undoubtedly  been  their  disgrace  or  removal  to  another 
sphere  of  action  very  probably  not  at  all  desirable. 
He  was  credited  for  an  infinitude  of  things  he  had 
never  thought  of  performing,  and  he  was  supposed  to 
have  been  privy  to  all  kinds  of  governmental  changes 
that  either  pleased  or  displeased  those  who  criticised 
them.  As  time  went  on  one  accused  him  among  other 
things  of  the  dismissal  of  the  procurator  of  the  Holy 
Synod,  Mr.  LoukianofF,  with  whom  he  had  for  a  long 
period  been  at  daggers  drawn  and  who  had  openly  ex- 
pressed his  disapproval  of  the  "Prophet"  and  his  dis- 
belief in  his  miraculous  powers.  The  elevation  of  the 
Archimandrite  Warnava,  one  of  his  warmest  patrons 
in  the  past,  to  the  Episcopal  See  of  Tobolsk  was  also 
said  to  have  been  Rasputin's  work,  and  the  public  per- 
sisted so  entirely  in  seeing  his  hand  everywhere  and 
in  everything  that  it  was  even  rumoured  that  it  was 
he  who  was  answerable  for  the  decision  of  the  censor 
forbidding  the  representation  of  a  drama  by  the  cele- 
brated  author  Leonide   Andreieff   called,   "Anath- 


66    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ema,"  on  the  eve  of  the  day  when  it  was  to  be  pro- 
duced— a  decision  which  caused  an  immense  sensation 
in  the  society  of  the  Russian  capital. 

It  was  natural  that  among  the  many  people  who 
crowded  around  Rasputin  some  secret  police  agents 
found  their  way.  One  of  these  who  was  later  to  be- 
come the  hero  of  more  than  one  scandal,  a  certain  Mr. 
Manassevitsch  ManiulofF,  bethought  himself  of  be- 
coming the  mentor  of  the  "Prophet."  He  was  in  close 
relation  with  Count  .Witte,  always  eager  for  his  own 
return  to  power,  and  desirous  of  overturning  every  in- 
dividual in  possession  of  the  posts  which  he  had  for- 
merly occupied  himself.  The  two.  men  tried  to  imbue 
Rasputin  with  the  idea  that  he  had  great  political 
talents,  and  that  it  was  a  pity  he  had  not  yet  turned 
these  into  account  for  the  good  and  the  welfare  of 
Holy  Russia.  Rasputin  did  not  believe  in  the  sincer- 
ity of  his  newly  acquired  advisers,  but  he  was  shrewd 
enough  to  see  that  their  help  would  be  of  wonderful 
value  to  him.  He  willingly  entered  into  the  plans 
which  they  unfolded  to  him  between  two  glasses  of 
brandy  or  two  cups  of  champagne  as  the  occasion 
presented  itself.  Count  Witte  was  very  well  aware 
of  all  the  secret  influences  which  were  paramount  at 
Tsarskoie  Selo,  and  he  contrived  to  turn  them  in  fa- 
vour of  Rasputin,  suggesting  at  the  same  time  to  the 
latter  the  things  which  he  ought  to  say,  when  in  pres- 
ence of  certain  personages.  It  was  easy  to  throw  in 
a  word  now  and  then,  either  in  the  shape  of  a  jest,  or 
of  a  remark  uttered  inadvertently  and  unintention- 
ally, but  yet  sure  to  bear  fruit  in  the  future.  The 
great  thing  was  to  give  to  Rasputin  the  idea  that  he 


Rasputin  67 

was  a  personage  of  importance.  This  was  not  a  very- 
difficult  matter  considering  the  very  high  opinion 
which  he  ah'eady  had  of  his  own  capacities,  coupled 
with  his  set  resolution  to  make  the  most  hay  whilst  the 
sun  was  shining,  and  never  to  miss  an  opportunity  of 
asserting  his  personality  no  matter  on  what  occasion 
or  with  what  purpose. 

The  Balkan  war  gave  Rasputin  a  golden  opportu- 
nity for  exercising  his  various  talents,  and  it  is  pretty 
certain  that  he  made  at  the  time  strenuous  efforts  in 
favour  of  peace,  repeating  to  whomsoever  wished  to 
hear  him  that  he  had  had  visions  which  predicted  that 
the  greatest  calamities  were  awaiting  Russia,  if  she 
mixed  herself  up  in  it.  This  feeling  was  shared  by 
a  numerous  party,  and  the  sovereign  himself  was  the 
most  resolute  adversary  of  any  military  intervention 
in  this  unfortunate  affair.  It  is  likely  that  even  with- 
out Rasputin  Russia  would  not  have  drawn  her  sword 
either  for  Bulgaria  or  for  Serbia,  but  nevertheless  it 
pleased  his  friends  to  say  that  without  him  this  would 
have  most  undoubtedly  occurred.  And  it  also  pleased 
him  to  assert  that  on  this  occasion  he  had  proved  to  be 
the  saviour  of  his  native  land.  We  shall  see  him  re- 
peat this  legend  with  great  relish  during  a  conversa- 
tion which  I  had  with  him  personally  just  before  the 
breaking  out  of  the  present  war. 

There  was  also  another  incident  in  which  Rasputin 
most  certainly  was  implicated.  This  was  the  dismis- 
sal of  Mr.  Koko\i;sofF,  then  Prime  Minister  and 
President  of  the  Council,  followed  by  the  appoint- 
ment in  his  place  of  old  and  tottering  Mr.  Goremj^- 
kine,  to  whom  no  one  in  the  whole  of  Russia  had  ever 


68    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

given  a  thought  as  a  possible  candidate  for  this  dif- 
ficult post.  Count  Witte  was  the  personal  enemy  of 
Mr.  KokovtsofF,  whom  he  had  never  forgiven  for  his 
so-called  treason  in  regard  to  himself,  and  he  never 
missed  any  opportunity  to  attack  him  in  the  Council 
of  State,  of  which  they  were  both  members,  criticising 
his  financial  administration  and  making  fun  of  the 
splendid  budgets  which  were  regularly  presented  to 
the  Duma.  These  Witte  declared  to  be  entirely  arti- 
ficial, reposing  on  a  clever  manipulation  of  figures. 
In  some  ways  it  was  easy  to  find  fault  with  Mr.  Ko- 
kovtsoff,  whose  name  had  been  mixed  up  far  too 
much  for  the  good  of  his  personal  reputation  in  all 
kind  of  financial  transactions  and  Stock  Exchange 
operations.  But,  then,  the  same  thing  had  been  said 
about  Count  Witte  with  perhaps  even  more  reason 
than  about  Mr.  Kokovtsoff,  whose  wife,  at  least,  had 
never  been  suspected  of  any  manipulations  with  her 
banking  account.  Indeed,  no  finance  minister  in 
Russia  had  escaped  accusations  of  the  kind  from  his 
detractors  or  his  adversaries,  and  it  had  never  inter- 
fered with  their  administrative  careers  nor  prevented 
them  from  sleeping  soundly. 

So  far,  so  well ;  but  then  this  was  more  the  work  of 
events  as  they  had  unfolded  themselves  naturally  than 
the  merit  of  Rasputin;  yet  he  was  openly  congratu- 
lated by  his  friends,  or  so-called  ones,  on  the  success 
which  he  had  obtained  in  driving  Mr.  Kokovtsoff 
away.  The  ultra-orthodox  party  which  hailed  the 
advent  to  power  of  one  of  its  members — Mr.  Goremy- 
kine  having  always  been  considered  as  one  of  the  pil- 
lars of  the  conservative  faction — not  only  cheered  the 


Rasputin  69 

"Prophet"  with  enthusiasm  but  also  started  to  pro- 
claim anew  his  genius  and  clear  understanding  of  the 
needs  of  the  Russian  people.  Thus  a  ministerial  crisis 
culminated  in  the  apotheosis  of  a  man  whose  only  ap- 
preciation of  the  qualities  and  of  the  duties  of  a  Min- 
ister consisted  in  the  knowledge  of  that  Minister's  ex- 
istence as  a  public  functionary;. 


CHAPTER  III 

Among  Rasputin's  adversaries  was  Mr.  Stolyplne, 
who,  with  strong  common  sense  and  great  intelli- 
gence, had  objected  to  the  importance  which  certain 
social  circles  in  St.  Petersburg  had  tried  to  give  to  the 
soothsayer.  At  first  he  had  regarded  the  whole  mat- 
ter as  a  kind  of  wild  craze  which  was  bound  to  subside 
in  time,  as  other  crazes  of  the  same  sort  had  dwindled 
into  insignificance  in  the  past.  Later  on,  however, 
some  reports  that  had  reached  him  concerning  the  per- 
sons who  frequented  Rasputin's  society  had  given  him 
reason  to  think  that  there  might  be  something  more 
than  stupid  enthusiasm  in  the  various  tales  which  had 
come  to  his  ears  in  regard  to  the  Prophet  of  Pokrov- 
skoie.  He,  therefore,  expressed  the  wish  to  see  him, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  form  a  personal  judgment  of  the 
man,  and  a  meeting  was  arranged  in  due  course  at  the 
house  of  one  of  the  ladies  who  patronised  Rasputin. 
It  is  related  that  after  he  had  cast  his  eyes  upon  him 
Mr.  Stolypine,  when  asked  to  give  his  opinion  on  the 
personality  of  the  individual  about  whom  he  had  heard 
so  many  conflicting  reports,  had  simply  replied : 

"The  best  thing  to  do  with  him  is  to  send  him  to 
light  the  furnace ;  he  is  fit  for  nothing  else." 

The  words  were  repeated  and  circulated  freely  in 
St.  Petersburg;  they  reached  Rasputin,  and  enraged 
him  the  more,  because,  shortly  afterwards,  it  was  Mr. 

70 


Rasputin  71 

Stolypine  who  had  insisted  on  having  him  expelled 
from  the  capital,  and  who  for  two  whole  years  had  re- 
fused to  allow  him  to  enter  it  again.  When,  there- 
fore, in  the  early  autumn  of  1912  the  "prophet"  at 
last  was  allowed  to  return  to  St.  Petersburg,  it  was 
with  the  feelings  of  the  deepest  enmity  against  the 
Minister  who  had  exiled  him.  He  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  finding  that  during  his  enforced  absence  the 
popularity  of  Mr.  Stolypine  had  decreased,  and  that  a 
considerable  number  were  openly  talking  about  over- 
throwing him.  Rasputin  very  soon  discovered  the  use 
which  could  be  made  of  this  state  of  things,  which 
surpassed  by  far  any  hopes  he  might  have  nursed  of 
being  able  to  be  revenged  upon  the  President  of  the 
Cabinet  for  the  injury  which  he  imagined  that  the  lat- 
ter had  done  to  him.  He  proceeded  in  all  his  sermons 
to  compare  him  with  the  Antichrist,  and  to  say  that 
Russia  would  never  be  quiet  so  long  as  he  remained 
one  of  its  rulers. 

The  police  agent,  whose  name  I  have  already  men- 
tioned, Mr.  Manassevitsch  Maniuloff,  who  always 
had  his  eye  on  Rasputin,  and  who  had  hastened  to 
call  upon  him  as  soon  as  he  had  seen  him  return  to 
the  capital,  was  not  slow  to  notice  the  now  outspoken 
animosity  of  the  latter  in  regard  to  the  Prime  Min- 
ister, who  was  offensive  to  him  as  well  as  to  the  whole 
secret  police.  The  latter,  finding  that  it  could  no 
longer  do  what  it  pleased,  and  that  it  had  to  respect 
the  private  liberty  and  life  of  the  peaceful  Russian 
citizens,  or  else  be  called  to  account  by  Mr.  Stolypine, 
who  ever  since  his  appointment  had  been  working 
against  the  occult  powers  of  the  "Okhrana,"  had  but 


72    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

one  idea ;  and  this  was  to  get  rid  by  fair  means  or  by 
foul  of  a  master  determined  to  control  the  police. 
It  is  known  in  Russia  that  Mr.  Stolypine's  assassina- 
tion was  the  work  of  the  secret  police  itself,  who  had 
found  the  murderer  in  the  person  of  one  of  its  own 
agents,  to  whom  it  had  furnished  even  the  revolver 
with  which  to  kill  the  unfortunate  Stolypine.  But 
few  people  dared  relate  all  that  they  suspected  in  re- 
gard to  this  heinous  crime,  and  fewer  still  were  aware 
of  all  its  details,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  it  had 
been  planned. 

The  truth  of  the  story  is  that  Mr.  Maniuloff  sec- 
retly took  to  Rasputin's  house  two  or  three  police 
agents,  to  whom  the  latter  said  that  God  himself  had 
revealed  to  him  that  Russia  could  never  be  saved  from 
the  perils  of  revolution  until  the  removal  of  Mr.  Sto- 
lypine. He  even  blessed  the  officers,  together  with  a 
pistol  with  which  he  presented  them.  It  turned  out 
afterwards  that  this  pistol  was  the  very  weapon  which 
the  Jew  Bagroff  fired  at  the  Prime  Minister  in  the 
theatre  of  Kieff  during  the  gala  performance  given 
there  in  honour  of  the  Emperor's  visit  to  the  town. 
When  Stolypine  had  succumbed  to  his  wounds,  Ras- 
putin made  no  secret  of  the  satisfaction  which  his 
death  had  occasioned  to  him,  and  exerted  himself  in 
favour  of  several  people  who  were  supposed  to  have 
been  privy  to  the  plot  that  had  been  hatched  against 
the  life  of  the  Prime  Minister.  He  told  his  disciples 
that  the  fate  which  had  overtaken  the  unhappy  Stoly- 
pine did  not  surprise  him  at  all,  and  that  every  one 
of  those  who  would  venture  to  oppose  him  would  meet 
with  a  similar  one  in  the  future. 


Rasputin  73 

In  a  certain  sense,  this  threat  had  an  effect  on  those 
before  whom  it  was  uttered.  People  began  to  dread 
Rasputin,  not  on  account  of  any  supernatural  pow- 
ers he  might  have  been  endowed  with,  but  because 
they  saw  that  he  had  managed  to  get  into  association 
with  individuals  utterly  unscrupulous  and  ready  to 
resort  to  every  means,  even  to  assassination,  in  order 
to  come  to  their  own  ends.  They  thought  it  better 
and  wiser,  therefore,  to  get  out  of  his  way  and  not 
to  attempt  to  thwart  him.  He  became  associated  in 
the  mind  of  Russian  society  with  conspirators  simi- 
lar to  the  Italian  carbonari  or  Camorrists.  The  conr 
viction  that  under  the  veil  of  religious  fervour  he  was 
able  to  persuade  his  satellites  to  do  whatever  he 
pleased,  and  to  hesitate  at  nothing  in  the  way  of  in- 
famy and  crime,  gradually  established  itself  every- 
where until  it  was  thought  advisable  to  have  nothing 
to  do  with  him,  or  else  to  submit  to  him  absolutely  and 
in  everything.  It  was  very  well  known  that  he  had 
had  a  hand  in  the  murder  of  Mr.  Stolypine,  but  not 
one  single  person  could  be  found  daring  enough  to 
say  so,  and  an  atmosphere  of  impunity  enveloped  him 
together  with  those  who  worshipped  at  his  shrine  or 
who  had  put  themselves  under  his  protection. 

It  was  during  this  same  winter  of  1912-13  that  the 
name  of  Rasputin  became  more  and  more  familiar  to 
the  ears  of  the  general  public,  which  until  that  time 
had  only  heard  about  him  vaguely  and  had  not  trou- 
bled about  him  at  all.  It  was  also  then  that  rumours 
without  number  concerning  the  prayer  meetings  at 
which  he  presided  began  to  circulate.  Innumerable 
legends  arose  in  regard  to  those  meetings,  which  were 


74    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

compared  to  the  worst  assemblies  ever  held  by  Khly- 
sty  sectarians.  In  reality  nothing  unmentionable 
took  place  during  their  course.  Rasputin  was  far 
too  clever  to  apply  to  the  fine  ladies,  whose  help  he 
considered  essential  to  the  progress  of  his  future  ca- 
reer, the  same  means  by  which  he  had  subjugated  the 
simple  peasant  women  and  provincial  girls  whom  he 
had  depraved.  He  remained  strictly  on  the  religious 
ground  with  his  aristocratic  followers,  and  he  tried 
only  to  develop  in  them  feelings  of  divine  fei^our 
verging  upon  an  exaltation  which  was  close  to  hys- 
teria in  its  worst  shape  or  form.  In  a  word,  it  was 
with  him  and  them  a  case  like  that  of  the  nuns  of  Lou- 
dun  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Had  he  lived  in  the 
middle  ages  it  is  certain  that  Rasputin  would  have 
been  burnt  at  the  first  stake  to  be  found  for  the  pur- 
pose, which,  perhaps,  would  not  have  been  such  a 
great  misfortune. 

I  have  seen  a  photograph  representing  the  "Pro- 
phet" drinking  tea  with  the  ladies  who  composed  the 
nucleus  of  the  new  church  or  sect,  which  he  prided 
himself  upon  having  founded.  It  is  a  curious  pro- 
duction. Rasputin  is  seen  sitting  at  a  table  before  a 
samovar  or  tea  urn  slowly  sipping  out  of  a  saucer  the 
fragrant  beverage  so  dear  to  Russian  hearts.  Around 
him  are  grouped  the  Countess  I.,  Madame  W.,  Ma- 
dame T.  and  other  of  his  feminine  admirers,  who, 
with  fervent  eyes,  are  watching  him.  The  expression 
of  these  ladies  is  most  curious,  and  makes  one  regret 
that  one  could  not  observe  it  otherwise  than  in  a  pic- 
ture. Their  faces  are  filled  with  an  enthusiasm  that 
bears  the  distinct  stamp  of  magnetic  influence,  and 


Rasputin  75 

it  is  easy  to  notice  that  they  are  plunged  into  that 
kind  of  trance  when  one  is  no  longer  accountable  for 
one's  actions. 

The  method  used  by  Rasputin  was  to  humiliate  all 
the  women  of  the  higher  circles  whom  he  had  subju- 
gated, and  who  had  been  silly  enough  to  allow  them- 
selves to  fall  under  his  spell.  Thus  he  liked  to  com- 
pell  them  to  kiss  his  hands  and  feet,  to  lick  the  plates 
out  of  which  he  had  been  eating,  or  to  drink  out  of 
the  glass  which  he  had  just  drained.  He  made  them 
say  long  prayers  in  a  most  fatiguing  posture,  com- 
pelled them  sometimes  to  remain  for  hours  prostrate 
on  the  ground  before  some  sacred  image,  or  to  stand 
for  a  whole  day  in  one  place  without  moving,  as  a  pen- 
ace  for  their  sins;  or  again  to  go  for  hours  without 
food.  Once  he  commanded  one  of  them  to  walk  in 
one  night  to  the  village  of  Strelna,  a  distance  of  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  St.  Petersburg,  and  to  return 
immediately,  without  giving  herself  any  rest  at  all, 
with  a  twig  from  a  certain  tree  he  had  designated  to 
her. 

In  a  word,  Doctor  Charcot  would  have  found  in 
him  an  invaluable  assistant  in  the  experiments  he  was 
so  fond  of  making.  But  he  did  not  go  further  than 
these  eccentricities.  Orgies  did  not  take  place  dur- 
ing the  prayer  meetings  in  which  Rasputin  exerted 
to  the  utmost  the  magnetic  powers  which  he  undoubt- 
edly possessed.  While  he  had  been  preaching  to  the 
humble  followers  he  had  at  the  beginning  of  his  ca- 
reer of  thaumaturgy  the  theory  of  free  love,  to  his 
St.  Petersburg  disciples  he  declared  that  sensuality 
was  the  one  great  crime  which  the  Almighty  never 


76    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

forgave  to  those  who  had  rendered  themselves  guilty 
of  it.  It  was  in  order  to  subdue  the  flesh  and  the  devil 
that  he  commanded  his  victims  to  mortify  themselves 
together  with  their  senses,  and  that  he  submitted  them 
to  the  most  revolting  practices  of  self-penitence  be- 
fore which  they  would  have  recoiled  with  horror  had 
they  been  of  sound  mind. 

There  is  a  curious  account  of  an  interview  with  him 
which  was  published  in  the  Retsch,  the  organ  of  the 
Russian  Liberal  party,  immediately  after  the  death 
of  Rasputin  by  Prince  Lvoff ,  who  had  had  the  curi- 
osity to  speak  with  the  "Prophet."  The  Prince  was 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  progressive  faction  of  the 
Duma.  This  is  what  he  wrote,  which  I  feel  certain 
will  interest  my  readers  sufficiently  for  them  to  for- 
give me  for  quoting  it  in  extenso : 

**I  have  had  personally  twice  in  my  life  occasion 
to  speak  with  Rasputin.  The  first  time  was  toward 
the  end  of  the  year  1915,  when  I  was  invited  by  Prince 
I.  W.  Gouranoff  to  meet  him. 

When  I  arrived  Rasputin  was  already  there,  sit- 
ting beside  a  large  table,  with  a  numerous  company 
gathered  around  him,  among  which  figured,  in  the 
same  quality  as  myself,  as  a  curious  stranger,  the 
present  chief  of  the  military  censorship  in  Petrograd, 
General  M.  A.  Adabasch,  who  was  the  whole  time  at- 
tentively watching  the  "Prophet"  from  the  distant 
corner  whither  he  had  retired.  Rasputin  was  dressed 
in  his  usual  costume  of  a  Russian  peasant  and 
was  very  silent,  throwing  only  now  and  then  a 
word  or  two  into  the  general  conversation  or  utter- 


Rasputin  77 

ing  a  short  sentence,  after  which  he  relapsed  into  his 
former  silence.  In  his  dress  and  in  his  manners  he 
was  absolutely  uncouth,  and  when,  for  instance,  he 
was  offered  an  apple  he  cut  a  hole  at  its  top  with 
his  own  very  dirty  pocket  knife,  after  which  he  put 
the  knife  aside  and  tore  the  fruit  in  two  with  his  hands, 
eating  it,  peel  and  all,  in  the  most  primitive  manner. 
After  some  time  he  got  up  and  went  to  the  next 
room,  where  he  sat  down  on  a  large  divan  with 
a  few  ladies  who  had  joined  him,  toward  whom  his 
manner  left  very  much  to  be  desired. 

I  had  kept  examining  him  the  whole  time  with  great 
attention,  seeking  for  that  extraordinary  glance  he 
was  supposed  to  possess,  to  which  was  attributed  his 
power  over  people,  but  I  could  not  find  any  trace  of 
it  or  notice  anything  remarkable  about  him.  The 
expression  of  his  face  was  that  of  a  cunning  mougik, 
such  as  one  constantly  meets  with  in  our  countrj^  per- 
fectly well  aware  of  the  conditions  in  which  he 
found  himself,  and  determined  to  make  the  best 
out  of  them.  Everything  in  him,  to  begin  with 
his  common  dress  and  to  end  with  his  long  hair  and 
his  dirty  nails,  bore  the  character  of  the  uncivilised 
peasant  he  was.  He  seemed  to  realise,  better  perhaps 
than  those  who  surrounded  him,  that  one  of  his  trump 
cards  was  precisely  this  uncouthness,  which  ought  to 
have  been  repelling,  and  that  if  he  had  put  on  dif- 
ferent clothes  and  tried  to  assimilate  the  manners  of 
his  betters,  half  of  the  interest  which  he  excited  would 
have  disappeared.  I  did  not  stay  a  long  time,  and 
went  away  thoroughly  disappointed,  and  perhaps 
even  slightly  disgusted  at  the  man. 


78    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

A  few  months  later,  in  February  of  the  present 
year,  1916,  I  was  asked  again  to  meet  Rasputin  at 
Baron  Miklos's  house.  There  I  found  a  numerous 
and  most  motley  company  assembled.  There  were 
two  members  of  the  Duma,  Messrs.  KaraoulofF  and 
Souratchane;  General  PolivanoiF;  a  great  landowner 
of  the  government  of  Woronege,  N.  P.  Alexieieff ; 
Madame  Svetchine;  the  Senator  S.  P.  Bieletsky  and 
other  people.  Ladies  were  in  a  majority.  Rasputin 
remained  talking  for  a  long  time  with  the  Deputy 
Karaouloff  in  another  room  than  the  one  in  which  I 
found  myself.  Then  he  came  to  join  us  in  the  large 
drawing  room,  where  he  kept  walking  up  and  down 
with  a  young  girl  on  his  arm — Mile.  D.,  a  singer  by 
profession — who  was  entreating  him  to  arrange  for 
her  an  engagement  at  the  Russian  Opera,  which  he 
promised  her  to  do  "for  certain,"  as  he  exnressed  him- 
self. 

Every  five  or  ten  minutes  Rasputin  went  up  to  a 
table  on  which  were  standing  several  decanters  with 
red  wine  and  other  spirits,  and  he  poured  himself  a 
large  glass  out  of  one  of  them.  He  swallowed  the 
contents  at  one  gulp,  wiping  his  mouth  afterwards 
with  his  sleeve  or  with  the  back  of  his  hand.  During 
one  of  these  excursions  he  came  up  to  where  I  was 
sitting,  and  stopped  before  me  exclaiming:  "I  re- 
member thee.  Thou  art  a  gasser,  who  writes,  and 
writes,  and  repeats  nothing  but  calumnies."  I  asked 
the  "Prophet"  why  he  did  not  say  "you"  to  me,  in- 
stead of  addressing  me  with  the  vulgar  appellation 
of  "thou." 


Rasputin  79 

"I  speak  in  this  way  with  everybody,"  he  replied. 
"I  have  got  my  own  way  in  talking  with  people." 

I  made  him  a  remark  concerning  some  words  which 
he  had  pronounced  badly,  adding,  "Surely  you  have 
learned  during  the  ten  years  which  you  have  lived  in 
the  capital  that  one  does  not  use  the  expressions  which 
you  have  employed.  And  how  do  you  know  that  I 
have  written  or  repeated  calumnies.  You  cannot  read 
yourself,  so  that  everything  you  hear  is  from  other 
people,  and  you  cannot  feel  sure  whether  they  tell 
you  the  truth." 

"This  does  not  matter,"  he  replied.  "Thou  hast 
written  that  one  is  stealing,  and  thou  knowest  thyself 
how  to  do  so." 

"I  do  not  know  how  to  steal,"  I  answered.  "But  I 
have  written  that  one  is  doing  so  at  present  every- 
where. This  it  was  necessary  to  do  for  the  public 
good." 

"Thou  hast  done  wrong;  one  must  only  write  the 
truth.    Truth  is  everything,"  he  said. 

The  conversation  was  assuming  an  angry  and  sharp 
tone.  Rasputin  became  enraged  at  my  telling  him 
that  all  he  was  saying  was  devoid  of  common  sense, 
and  he  began  shouting  at  me,  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 
"Be  quiet,  how  darest  thou  say  such  things.  Be 
quiet!" 

I  did  not  wish  to  remain  quiet,  and  I  began  in  my 
turn  to  shout  at  the  "Prophet,"  who  became  absolutely 
furious  when  I  assured  him  that  I  was  not  a  woman 
whom  he  could  frighten,  that  I  wanted  nothing  from 
him,  and  that  he  had  better  leave  me  alone,  or  it  might 
be  the  worse  for  him. 


8o    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

He  then  howled  at  me,  screaming  as  loud  as  he 
could:  "It  is  an  evil  thing  for  everybody  that  thou 
art  here!" 

.When  in  the  following  April  it  camv.  to  my  knowl- 
edge that  Mr.  Sturmer  wanted  to  expel  me  from  the 
capital,  I  was  surprised  to  have  Baron  Miklos  come 
to  me  one  day  in  the  name  of  Rasputin,  who  had  asked 
him  to  tell  me  that  though  I  was  a  "proud  man,"  he 
did  not  bear  me  any  grudge,  that  if  I  wished  it,  he 
would  take  steps  to  have  the  order  for  my  expul- 
sion revoked,  and  that  at  all  events,  he  begged  me  not 
to  think  that  he  had  taken  any  part  in  this  whole  af- 
fair. I  categorically  refused  to  avail  myself  of  the 
help  of  Rasputin,  and  there  ended  the  whole  matter." 

I  have  reproduced  this  tale  because  it  seems  to 
me  that  it  helps  one  to  understand  the  personality  of 
Rasputin,  and  because  it  describes  to  perfection  the 
manner  in  which  he  used  to  treat  the  people  with  whom 
he  dealt.  Personally,  when  I  interviewed  the  "Pro- 
phet," I  had  the  opportunity  to  convince  myself  that 
the  impression  which  he  had  produced  upon  Prince 
Lvoff  was  absolutely  a  correct  one,  and  I  made  the 
same  remark  which  the  latter  had  done  in  regard  to 
the  total  absence  of  this  magnetic  strength  which  Ras- 
putin was  supposed  to  possess  over  those  with  whom 
he  entered  into  conversation.  The  man  was  a  fraud 
and  nothing  else.  He  had  been  deified  by  the  group 
of  foolish  people  whom  he  had  persuaded  that  he  was 
a  messenger  from  Heaven,  come  to  announce  to  Holy 
Russia  that  a  new  Christ  had  arisen.  But  his  pre- 
tended fascination  existed  only  in  the  imagination  of 


Rasputin  8i 

the  persons  who  asserted  its  existence.  To  the  impar- 
tial observer  he  appeared  what  he  was — an  arrogant 
and  insolent  peasant,  who,  knowing  admirably  well 
on  which  side  his  bread  was  buttered,  exploited  with 
considerable  ability  to  his  personal  advantage  the  stu- 
pidity of  his  neighbours. 

I  have  already  related  that  his  house  had  become  a 
kind  of  Stock  Exchange  in  which  everything  could 
be  bought  or  sold,  where  all  kinds  of  shady  transaic- 
tions  used  to  take  place,  and  where  the  most  disgust- 
ing bargaining  for  places  and  appointments  was  per- 
petually going  on.  Gifts  innumerable  were  show- 
ered upon  him,  which  he  pretended  he  distributed 
to  the  poor,  but  which  in  reality  he  carefully  put  into 
his  own  pocket.  This  peasant,  who  when  he  had  ar- 
rived in  St.  Petersburg  for  the  first  time,  had  hardly 
possessed  a  shirt  to  his  back,  had  become  a  very  rich 
man.  He  had  bought  several  houses,  gambled  in 
stock  shares  and  other  securities,  and  had  contrived  to 
accumulate  a  banking  account  which,  if  one  is  to  be- 
lieve all  that  has  been  related,  amounted  to  several 
millions.  From  time  to  time,  however,  he  used  to 
come  out  with  some  munificent  offering  to  some  char- 
ity or  other,  with  which  he  threw  dust  in  people's  eyes. 
They  thought  that  it  was  in  this  manner  that  he  em- 
ployed all  the  money  which  was  showered  upon  him 
by  his  numerous  admirers.  It  was  in  this  way  that  he 
built  in  St.  Petersburg,  not  far  from  the  spot  where, 
by  a  strange  coincidence,  his  murdered  body  was 
afterwards  found,  a  church  which  was  called  the  Sal- 
vation Church,  which  adjoined  a  school  for  girls. 
There  he  used  to  go  often.    Whenever  he  went  he 


82    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

was  always  met  by  the  clergy  in  charge  with  great 
pomp,  as  if  he  had  been  a  bishop  or  some  great  ecclesi- 
astical dignitary,  and  was  awaited  at  the  door  with  the 
cross  and  holy  water.  This  church  was  placed  under 
the  special  protection  of  the  Metropolitan  of  Petro- 
grad,  Pitirim,  who  often  celebrated  divine  service  in 
it,  at  which  Rasputin  always  made  it  a  point  to  be 
present.  But  instead  of  meeting  the  Metropolitan, 
as  he  ought  to  have  done,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  arriv- 
ing after  him.  Mgr.  Pitirim,  however,  awaited  his 
arrival  just  as  he  would  have  waited  for  the  Emperor. 
Indeed  the  submission  which  the  official  head  of  the 
clergy  of  the  capital  affected  in  regard  to  Rasputin 
is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  episodes  in  the  lat- 
ter's  wonderful  career. 

In  fact,  when  one  reviews  all  one  has  heard  con- 
cerning this  personage,  one  is  tempted  to  ask  the  ques- 
tion whether  his  appearance  in  St.  Petersburg  had 
not  brought  along  with  it  an  epidemic  of  madness 
among  all  those  who  had  come  in  contact  with  him. 
It  hardly  seems  possible  that  bishops,  priests,  minis- 
ters, high  dignitaries,  statesmen,  even,  or  at  least  men 
having  the  pretension  to  be  considered  as  such,  should 
have  thought  it  necessary  to  go  and  seek  the  favour 
of  this  vulgar,  ill-bred,  dirty  Russian  mougik,  devoid 
of  honesty  and  of  scruples,  about  whom  the  most  dis- 
graceful stories  were  being  repeated  everywhere,  and 
whose  presence  in  the  houses  where  he  was  a  daily  visit- 
or used  to  give  rise  to  the  worst  kind  of  gossip.  This 
gossip  was  of  such  a  nature  that  decent  persons  hesi- 
tated before  repeating  it,  let  alone  believing  it.    Like 


Rasputin  83 

an  insidious  poison  it  defiled  all  whom  it  touched. 
One  fails  to  realise  by  what  kind  of  magic  grave  men 
like  Mr.  S abler,  for  instance,  who  for  some  time  had 
occupied  the  highly  responsible  and  delicate  function 
of  Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod,  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant posts  in  the  whole  Russian  Empire,  could 
be  made  so  far  to  forget  himself  as  to  prostrate  him- 
self before  Rasputin  in  his  eagerness  to  become  en- 
titled to  the  latter's  good  graces  and  protection. 
And  that  he  did  so  is  at  least  not  a  matter  of  doubt, 
if  we  are  to  believe  the  following  letter  which  the 
monk  Illiodore  wrote  from  his  exile  on  the  fifth  of 
May,  1914,  to  a  personage  very  well  known  in  the 
political  circles  of  St.  Petersburg. 

"I  swear  to  you  with  the  word  of  honour  of  an 
honest  man  that  the  letter  in  which  I  called  Sab- 
ler  and  Damansky  the  instruments  of  'Gricha' 
(Rasputin)  contained  nothing  but  the  solemn 
truth,  and  I  repeat  it  orjce  more,  that  according  to 
what  Rasputin  told  to  me  on  the  twenty-eighth  of 
June,  1911,  at  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  in  my  little 
cell,  Sabler  really  kissed  the  feet  of  'Gricha,'  who, 
in  relating  this  story  to  me,  showed  me  with  an  ex- 
pressive pantomime  in  what  way  he  had  done  so. 
I  consider  as  utterly  false  and  as  a  barefaced  lie 
the  declaration  of  Mr.  Sabler  that  he  had  never 
prostrated  himself  before  any  one,  except  before 
the  sacred  images.    Respectfully  yours, 

S.  M.  TROUFANOFF, 
formerly  the  monk  Illiodore." 


84    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

It  is  difficult  to  say,  of  course,  how  much  reliance 
can  be  placed  on  those  assertions  of  Illiodore,  and 
whether  Mr.  S abler  really  thought  it  necessary  to  fall 
on  the  ground  before  Rasputin.  But  out  of  this  let- 
ter one  can  infer  that  the  influence  of  the  latter  was 
considered  to  be  important  enough  for  people  to 
trouble  themselves  about  relating  stories  of  the  kind 
to  show  it  up.  Altogether,  one  may  safely  conclude, 
out  of  the  very  spare  material  which  so  far  has  come 
to  light  in  regard  to  the  activity  of  Rasputin,  that 
we  have  not  yet  heard  the  whole  truth  about  all  the 
circumstances  which  accompanied  his  sudden  rise  and 
fall,  and  that  there  must  have  been  in  both  events 
things  which  perhaps  will  never  come  to  light.  But 
all  of  them  point  out  to  some  dark  intrigue  in  which 
he  was  but  one  of  the  pawns,  whilst  believing  himself 
to  be  the  principal  actor.  One  must  not  forget  that 
the  Czar  himself  was  at  one  time  liberal  in  his  ideas 
and  opinions,  and  that  it  was  entirely  due  to  his  per- 
sonal initiative  that  the  Constitution,  such  as  it  is, 
which  Russia  possessed  before  his  fall  was  promul- 
gated. This  was  not  done  without  arousing  terrible 
animosities,  provoking  awful  discontent.  From  the 
first  hour  that  its  contents  were  published,  there  were 
found  persons  who  began  to  work  against  it,  and  who 
by  their  efforts  brought  about  the  revolution  of  the 
year  1905,  with  the  help  of  which  they  hoped  to  bring 
back  the  days  of  absolute  government,  when  every 
public  functionary  was  a  small  Czar  in  his  own  way, 
and  when  the  caprice  of  the  first  police  official  could 
send  away  to  distant  Siberia  innocent  people.  This 
abuse  Nicholas  II.  had  tried  to  put  an  end  to,  which 


Rasputin  85 

was  not  forgiven  by  the  crew  of  rapacious  crocodiles, 
who  up  to  that  day  had  administered  the  affairs  of 
the  Russian  Empire,  and  they  it  was  who  determined 
to  take  their  revenge  for  this  noble  and  disinterested 
intention  of  their  sovereign. 

Rasputin  became  the  instrument  of  the  reactionary 
party,  which  he,  in  his  turn,  contrived  to  make  in- 
strumental in  carrying  out  his  own  views  and  aims. 
His  head  had  been  turned  by  the  unexpected  position 
in  which  he  had  found  himself  placed.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  he  lost  his  balance  and  that  he  ended  by 
considering  himself  as  being  what  he  had  been  told 
by  so  many  different  people  that  he  was — a  Prophet 
of  the  Lord,  having  the  right  to  say  what  he  liked,  to 
calumniate  whom  he  liked,  to  make  use  of  whatever 
means  he  found  at  hand,  to  eliminate  from  his  path 
any  obstacles  he  might  have  found  intruding  upon  it. 
His  name  became  synonymous  with  that  of  this  ultra- 
conservative  party  which  was  leading  Russia  towards 
its  ruin,  and  which  always  contrived  to  reduce  to  noth- 
ing all  the  good  intentions  of  the  Czar.  Rasputin  was 
a  symbol  and  a  flag  at  the  same  time;  the  symbol  of 
superstition,  and  the  flag  of  dark  reaction.  It  is 
impossible  to  know  to  this  day  whether  he  was  not 
also  what  everything  points  to;  that  is,  an  agent  of 
the  German  Government,  who  had  entered  into  Ger- 
man interests,  and  who  had  during  the  last  months 
of  his  life  been  working  together  with  Mr.  Sturmer 
and  the  latter's  private  secretary,  the  famous  Man- 
assevitsch  Maniuloff,  towards  a  separate  peace  with 
the  Central  Powers,  the  conclusion  of  which  would 
have  dishonoured  forever  the  Czar,  together  with  his 


86    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Government,  and  which  would  have  provoked  such 
discontent  in  the  country  that  the  dynasty  might  have 
collapsed  under  its  weight. 

There  exist  at  least  indications  that  such  a  thing 
was  within  the  lunits  of  possibility,  and,  if  so,  those 
who  put  an  end  to  the  evil  career  of  this  dangerous 
man  deserve  well  from  their  country,  and  the  leniency 
which  has  been  shown  to  them  is  but  the  reward  for 
an  act  of  daring  which,  though  unjustifiable  from  the 
moral  point  of  view,  is  i^evertheless  to  be  condoned 
by  the  circumstance  that  its  patriotic  aim  was  so  great 
that  it  was  worth  while  risking  everything,  even  re- 
morse, in  order  to  accomplish  it. 

In  a  certain  sense,  Rasputin  was  the  curse  of  Rus- 
sia. Thanks  to  him,  the  purest  existences  were  sub- 
jected to  a  whole  series  of  base  attacks  and  of  vile 
calumnies.  Thanks  to  him,  our  enemies  were  given 
the  opportunity  to  pour  out  upon  us,  upon  our  insti- 
tutions, our  statesmen  and  even  upon  our  sovereign 
the  poison  of  their  venom,  and  to  represent  us  to  those 
who  do  not  know  us  in  a  light  which,  thanks  be  rend- 
ered to  God,  was  an  absolutely  false  and  untrue  one. 

Russia  was  far  too  gi-eat  for  such  things  to  touch 
her.  That  Germany  rejoiced  at  every  tale  which 
reached  its  ears  in  regard  to  Rasputin  is  evident  if  one 
reads  its  newspapers.  That  it  was  in  understanding 
and  accord,  if  not  directly  with  him,  at  least  with  some 
of  those  who  were  his  immediate  friends  and  habitual 
confidents,  has  been  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
impartial  persons.  And  that  he  worked  continually 
towards  establishing  an  understanding  between  the 
Czar  and  the  Kaiser  is  another  fact  of  which  more 


Rasputin  87 

than  one  man  in  Russia  is  aware.  Whether  he  did  so 
intentionally,  or  whether  he  was  the  unconscious  in- 
strument of  others  cleverer  and  more  cultivated  than 
he  ever  was  or  would  become,  is  still  a  point  that  has 
not  been  cleared  up  to  the  general  satisfaction.  But 
that  his  so-called  influence  only  existed  over  certain 
weak  people,  and  that  the  Czar  himself  never  know- 
ingly allowed  it  to  be  exercised  in  matters  of  state,  is 
a  fact  about  which  there  can  exist  no  doubt  for  those 
who  knew  the  sovereign. 


CHAPTER  IV 

I  HAVE  quoted  the  impressions  of  Prince  Lvoff  in 
regard  to  Rasputin,  and  have  remarked  that  I  have 
had  personally  the  opportunity  to  convince  myself 
that  they  were  correct,  at  least  in  their  broad  lines. 
The  interview  which  I  had  with  Rasputin  in  the 
course  of  the  winter  of  1913-14  left  me  with  feelings 
akin  to  those  experienced  by  the  Prince.  This  inter- 
view took  place  under  the  following  circumstances: 
I  had  been  asked  by  a  big  American  newspaper  to 
see  the  "Prophet,"  whose  renown  had  already  spread 
beyond  the  Russian  frontiers,  and  who  was  beginning 
to  be  considered  as  a  factor  of  no  mean  importance 
in  the  conduct  of  Russian  state  affairs.  This,  how- 
ever, was  by  no  means  an  easy  matter.  For  one  thing, 
he  was  seldom  in  St.  Petersburg.  He  spent  most  of 
his  time  at  Tsarskoie  Selo,  where  his  headquarters 
were  the  apartments  of  Mme.  W.  He  used  to  make 
only  brief  and  flying  visits  to  the  capital,  where  he 
possessed  several  dwellings.  One  never  knew  in 
which  one  he  could  be  found,  as  he  used  to  go  from 
one  to  another,  according  to  his  fancy.  He  gave  au- 
diences like  a  sovereign  would  have  done,  and  before 
any  one  was  allowed  to  enter  his  presence  that  person 
had  to  be  subjected  to  a  course  of  cross-examination 
so  as  to  make  quite  sure  that  no  malicious  or  evil  de- 


Rasputin  89 

signs  were  harboured  by  him  in  regard  to  the  "Pro- 
phet." 

At  last,  after  a  succession  of  unavaihng  efforts,  I 
chanced  to  light  on  a  certain  Mr.  de  Bock,  with  whom 
Rasputin  had  business  relations,  and  for  whom  he 
procured  when  the  war  broke  out  an  important  con- 
tract connected  with  the  supply  of  meat  for  the  troops 
in  the  field.  It  was  this  personage  who  finally  ob- 
tained for  me  the  favour  of  being  admitted  into  the 
home  of  Rasputin.  The  latter  was  living  at  the  time 
in  a  very  handsome  and  expensive  flat,  in  a  house  situ- 
ated on  the  English  Prospekt,  a  rather  distant  street 
in  St.  Petersburg,  whose  proximity  to  the  quarters  of 
the  working  population  of  the  capital  had  appealed  to 
the  "Prophet's"  tastes.  When  I  arrived  there  at 
about  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  I  was,  first  of  all, 
stopped  by  the  hall  porter,  who  wanted  me  to  explain 
to  him  where  and  to  whom  I  was  going.  Upon 
hearing  that  it  was  to  Rasputin  he  insisted  on  my 
taking  off  my  fur  coat  downstairs,  and  then  examined 
me  most  carefully  and  suspiciously,  surveying  with 
special  attention  the  size  and  volume  of  my  pockets, 
so  as  to  make  sure  that  I  was  not  carrying  any  mur- 
derous instruments  hidden  in  their  depths. 

Upstairs  the  door  was  opened  by  an  elderly  wo- 
man with  a  red  kerchief  over  her  head,  who,  I  learned 
afterward,  was  one  of  the  "sisters"  who  followed  the 
"Prophet"  everj^where.  She  asked  for  my  name,  and 
then  ushered  me  into  a  room,  sparely  but  richly  fur- 
nished. There  some  half-dozen  people  were  waiting, 
in  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  extreme  impatience,  for 
the  door  of  the  next  room  to  open  and  admit  them. 


90    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Voices  were  heard  through  the  door  angrily  discuss- 
ing something  or  other.  Among  the  people  present  I 
recognised  a  lady-in-waiting  on  the  Empress,  an  old 
general  in  possession  of  an  important  command,  two 
parish  priests,  three  women  belonging  to  the  lower 
classes,  one  of  whom  seemed  to  be  in  great  trouble, 
and  a  typical  Russian  merchant  in  high  boots  and 
dressed  in  the  long  caftan  which  is  still  worn  by  some 
of  those  who  have  kept  up  the  traditions  of  the  old 
school.  Then  there  was  a  little  boy  about  ten  years 
old,  poorly  clad,  who  was  crying  bitterly.  All  these 
people  kept  silent,  but  the  eager  expression  on  their 
faces  showed  that  they  were  all  labouring  under  an 
intense  agitation  and  emotion.  When  I  entered  the 
apartment  a  distinct  look  of  disappointment  appeared 
on  all  their  faces.  At  last  the  old  general  approached 
me,  and  asked  me  in  more  or  less  polite  tones  whether 
I  had  a  special  card  of  admission  or  not. 

"What  do  you  mean?"  I  inquired. 

"Well,  you  see,"  he  said,  "we  all  who  are  in  this 
room  have  got  one,  but  there" — and  he  pointed  with 
his  finger  to  the  adjoining  door — "there  sit  the  people 
who  have  come  here  on  the  chance,  just  to  try  whether 
Gregory  Efimitsch  will  condescend  to  speak  to  them. 
Some  have  been  sitting  there  since  last  night,"  he  sig- 
nificantly added.  And  as  he  spoke  he  slightly  pushed 
ajar  the  door  he  had  mentioned.  I  could  see  that  a 
room,  if  anything  smaller  than  the  one  we  were  in, 
was  packed  full  of  persons  of  different  ages  and 
types,  all  of  whom  looked  tired.  They  were  sitting 
not  only  on  the  few  chairs  which  the  apartment  con- 
tained, but  also  on  the  floor.    There  were  women  with 


Rasputin  91 

children  hanging  at  their  breast,  military  men,  priests, 
monks,  common  peasants  and  two  policemen.  The 
last  named  were  seated  by  the  window  leisurely  eat- 
ing a  piece  of  bread  and  cold  meat,  which  they  were 
cutting  into  small  slices  with  a  pocketknife.  They 
had  evidently  made  themselves  at  home,  regardless  of 
consequences  or  of  the  feelings  of  other  people.  Sud- 
denly we  heard  another  door  slam,  and  a  strong  step 
resounded  in  the  hall.    A  man  began  to  speak  in  a 

loud  voice.    He  said:    "You  just  go  to  see "  and 

here  the  name  of  one  of  the  most  influential  officials 
in  the  Home  Office  was  mentioned,  "and  you  tell  him 
that  Gricha  has  said  he  was  to  give  you  a  place,  and 
a  good  one,  too.  It  does  not  matter  whether  there 
is  none  vacant,  he  must  find  one.  There,  take  this 
paper,  and  now  go,  and  don't  forget  to  show  it  when 
you  come  to  the  Home  Office." 

The  door  slammed  again,  and  all  remained  silent 
for  a  few  minutes.  Then  the  elderly  woman  who  had 
admitted  me,  came  into  the  apartment  where  we  were 
sitting  and  beckoned  me  to  follow  her.  But  this 
proved  too  much  for  the  feelings  of  the  old  general 
who  had  accosted  me  on  my  entrance,  and  he  pushed 
himself  forward  in  front  of  me,  exclaiming  as  he  did 
so: 

"I  have  been  here  a  longer  time  than  she  has  been," 
pointing  at  me  with  his  finger,  "and  I  must  get  in 
first." 

"You  cannot  do  so,"  replied  the  woman;  "my  or- 
ders are  to  let  this  lady  in  first." 

"Do  you  know  who  I  am,  woman?"  screamed  the 
general  at  the  top  of  his  lungs ;  he  was  evidently  in  a 


92    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

towering  passion.  "Go  at  once,  and  tell  Gregory 
Efimitsch  that  I  must  see  him  at  once,  I  have  been 
waiting  here  for  more  than  an  hour." 

"I  cannot  do  so,"  replied  the  woman,  "I  must  obey 
the  orders  that  have  been  given  to  me." 

"Then  I  shall  do  it  myself,"  exclaimed  the  general, 
and  he  rushed  toward  the  door,  which  he  opened, 
when  he  was  stopped  by  a  whole  torrent  of  invectives 
coming  from  the  next  room. 

"How  dare  you  disobey  my  orders?"  cried  out  an 
angry  voice.  "Thou  pig  and  son  of  a  pig,  I  have  said 
I  wish  to  see  this  person  and  no  one  else !  Thou  idle 
creature!  Chuck  him  out  of  the  room,  that  pig  who 
dares  to  contradict  me,  and  you  come  in  here!"  And 
the  tall  figure  of  Rasputin  appeared  on  the  threshold 
of  the  room.  He  rudely  pushed  aside  the  general  and, 
seizing  my  hand,  pulled  me  into  another  apartment, 
which  seemed  to  be  his  dining  room. 

It  was  a  rather  large  corner  room  with  three  win- 
dows, in  which  stood  a  quantity  of  flowers  and  green 
plants.  A  round  table  occupied  the  middle,  on  which 
was  laid  a  striped  white-and-red  tablecloth.  A  sam- 
ovar was  standing  on  it,  together  with  glasses  on  blue- 
and-white  saucers,  slices  of  lemon,  sugar  in  a  silver 
sugar  basin,  and  quantities  of  cakes  and  biscuits. 
Chairs  were  placed  around  it,  on  one  of  which  Kas- 
putin  sat  down,  facing  the  tea  urn,  after  having  made 
me  a  sign  to  do  likewise.  I  noticed  that  there  was  a 
large  writing  table  in  one  corner  covered  with  books 
and  papers. 

The  "Prophet"  himself  did  not  at  all  strike  me  as 
being  the  remarkable  individual  I  had  been  led  to  ex- 


Rasputin  93 

pect.  He  must  have  been  about  forty  years  old,  tall 
and  lean,  with  a  long  black  beard  and  hair,  falling 
not  quite  down  to  his  back,  but  considerably  lower 
than  his  ears.  The  eyes  were  black,  singularly  cun- 
ning in  their  expression,  but  did  not  produce,  at  least 
not  on  me,  the  uncanny  impression  I  had  been  told 
they  generally  made  on  those  who  saw  th^m  for  the 
first  time.  The  hands  were  the  most  remarkable  thing 
about  the  man.  They  were  long  and  thin,  with  im- 
mense nails,  as  dirty  as  dirty  could  be.  He  kept  mov- 
ing them  in  all  directions  as  he  spoke,  sometimes  fold- 
ing them  on  his  breast  and  sometimes  lifting  them 
high  up  in  the  air.  He  wore  the  ordinary  dress  of 
the  Russian  peasant,  high  boots  and  the  caftan,  which, 
however,  was  made  of  the  best  and  finest  dark-blue 
cloth.  What  could  be  seen  of  his  linen  was  also  of 
the  best  quality. 

After  having  beckoned  to  me  to  sit  down,  Raspu- 
tin poured  out  some  tea  in  a  glass  and  proceeded  to 
drink  it,  sipping  the  beverage  slowly  out  of  the  sau- 
cer into  which  he  poured  it  out  of  the  glass  which  he 
had  just  filled.  Suddenly  he  pushed  the  same  saucer 
toward  me  with  the  word: 

"Drink." 

As  I  did  not  in  the  least  feel  inclined  to  take  his 
remains,  I  declined  the  tempting  offer,  which  made 
him  draw  together  his  black  and  bushy  eyebrows  with 
the  remark: 

"Better  persons  than  thou  art  have  drunk  out  of 
this  saucer,  but  if  thou  wantest  to  make  a  fuss  it  is 
no  concern  of  mine." 

And  then  he  called  out,  "Avdotia!  Avdotia!"    The 


94    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

elderly  woman  who  had  opened  the  door  for  me  has- 
tened to  come  into  the  room. 

"There,"  said  Rasputin,  "this  person" — pointing 
toward  me  with  his  forefinger — "this  person  refuses 
to  drink  out  of  the  cup  of  life;  take  it  thou  instead." 

The  woman  instantly  dropped  on  her  knees  and 
Rasputin  proceeded  to  open  her  mouth  with  his  fin- 
gers and  pour  down  her  throat  the  tea  which  I  had  dis- 
dained. She  then  prostrated  herself  on  the  ground 
before  him  and  reverently  kissed  his  feet,  remaining 
in  this  attitude  until  he  pushed  her  aside  with  his 
heavy  boot  and  said,  "There,  now  thou  canst  go." 

Then  he  turned  to  me  once  more.  "Great  ladies, 
some  of  the  greatest  in  the  land,  are  but  too  happy  to 
do  as  this  woman  has  done,"  he  said  dryly.  "Remem- 
ber that,  daughter." 

Then  he  proceeded  at  once  with  the  question,  "Thou 
hast  wished  to  see  me.  What  can  I  do  for  thee?  I 
am  but  a  poor  and  humble  man,  the  servant  of  the 
Lord,  but  sometimes  it  has  been  my  fate  to  do  some 
good  for  others.    What  dost  thou  require  of  me?" 

I  proceeded  to  explain  that  I  wanted  nothing  in 
the  matter  of  worldly  goods,  but  asked  this  singular 
personage  to  be  kind  enough  to  tell  me  for  the  paper 
which  I  represented  whether  it  was  true  that  but  for 
him  Russia  would  have  declared  war  upon  Austria 
the  year  before. 

"Who  has  told  you  such  a  thing?"  he  inquired. 

"It  is  a  common  saying  in  St.  Petersburg,"  I  re- 
plied, "and  some  people  say  that  you  have  been  right 
in  doing  so." 

"Right?     Of  course,  I  was  right,"  he  answered 


Photograph,  Interrtnfionnl  Film  Serrire,  Inc. 

Gregory    Rasputin 


Rasputin  95 

with  considerable  irritation.  "All  these  silly  people 
who  suri'ound  our  Czar  would  like  to  see  him  commit 
stupidities.  They  only  think  about  themselves  and 
about  the  profits  which  they  can  make.  War  is  a 
crime,  a  great  crime,  the  greatest  which  a  nation  can 
commit,  and  those  who  declare  war  are  criminals.  I 
only  spoke  the  truth  when  I  told  our  Czar  that  he 
would  be  ruined  if  he  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded 
to  go  to  war.  This  country  is  not  ready  for  it.  Be- 
sides, God  forbids  war,  and  if  Russia  went  to  war  the 
greatest  misfortunes  would  fall  upon  her.  I  only 
spoke  the  truth ;  I  always  speak  the  truth,  and  people 
believe  me." 

"But,"  I  remarked,  "no  one  can  understand  how  it 
is  that  your  opinion  always  prevails  in  such  grave  mat- 
ters. People  think  that  you  must  have  some  strange 
power  over  men  to  make  them  do  what  you  like." 

"And  what  if  I  have,"  he  exclaimed  angrily.  "They 
are,  all  of  them,  pigs — all  these  people  who  want  to 
discuss  me  or  my  doings.  I  am  but  a  poor  peasant* 
but  God  has  spoken  to  me,  and  He  has  allowed  me  to 
know  what  it  is  that  He  wishes.  I  can  speak  with  our 
Czar.  I  am  not  afraid  to  do  so^  as  they  all  are.  And 
he  knows  that  he  ought  to  listen  to  me,  else  all  kind  of 
evil  things  would  befall  him.  I  could  crush  them  all, 
all  these  people  who  want  to  thwart  me.  I  could 
crush  them  in  my  hand  as  I  do  this  piece  of  bread,'* 
and  while  he  was  speaking  he  seized  a  biscuit  out  of 
a  plate  on  the  table  and  reduced  it  to  crumbs.  "They 
have  tried  to  send  me  away,  but  they  will  never  get 
rid  of  me,  because  God  is  with  me  and  Gricha  shall 
outlive  them  all.    I  have  seen  too  much  and  I  know 


96    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

too  much.  They  are  obliged  to  do  what  I  like,  and 
what  I  like  is  for  the  good  of  Russia.  As  for  these 
ministers  and  generals,  and  all  these  big  functionaries 
whom  every  one  fears  in  this  capital,  I  do  not  trouble 
about  them.  I  can  send  them  all  away  if  I  like.  The 
spirit  of  God  is  in  me  and  will  protect  me. 

"Thou  canst  say  this  to  those  who  have  sent  thee 
to  see  me.  Thou  canst  tell  them  that  the  day  will 
come  when  there  will  be  no  one  worth  anything  in 
our  holy  Russia  except  our  Czar  and  Gricha,  the  ser- 
vant of  God.  Yes,  thou  canst  tell  them  so,  and  be 
sure  that  thou  dost  it." 

I  protested  that  I  should  consider  this  my  first 
duty,  but  at  the  same  time  begged  "the  servant  of 
God,"  as  he  called  himself,  to  explain  to  me  by  what 
means  he  had  acquired  the  influence  which  he  pos- 
sessed. 

"By  telling  the  truth  to  people  about  themselves," 
he  quickly  replied.  "Thou  probably  thinkest  that  all 
these  fine  ladies  about  the  court  who  come  to  me  do 
not  care  to  be  told  about  their  failings.  But  there 
it  is  that  thou  art  mistaken.  They  feel  so  discon- 
certed when  they  hear  me  call  them  by  their  proper 

names  and  remind  them  that  they  are  but  b s,  and 

the  daughters  of  b s,  that  they  immediately  fall 

at  my  feet.  A  silly  lot  are  these  women,  and  Gricha 
is  not  such  a  fool  as  one  thinks.  He  knows  how  they 
ought  to  be  treated.  Wilt  thou  see  how  I  treat 
them?" 

I  said  that  nothing  would  give  me  more  pleasure. 
Rasputin  went  to  the  door  and  called  Avdotia. 

"Go  to  the  telephone,"  he  said  when  she  came  in. 


Rasputin  97 

"ask  the  Countess  I to  come  at  once.    She  must 

come  herself  to  the  telephone,  and  if  a  servant  replies, 
say  that  he  must  call  her  immediately,  and  then  tell 
her  that  I  require  her  presence  here  at  12  o'clock  to- 
night; not  one  minute  earlier  or  later,  mind." 

The  woman  went  away,  and  I  could  hear  her  talk- 
ing at  the  telephone  in  the  next  room  in  an  authorita- 
tive tone.    Soon  she  returned  with  the  words : 

"The  Countess  sends  her  humble  respects  to  Greg- 
ory Efimitsch,  and  she  will  be  here  at  midnight  as 
she  has  been  ordered  to." 

Rasputin  turned  toward  me  with  a  triumphant 
smile  on  his  coarse  cunning  countenance. 

"Thou  canst  see,  they  are  losing  no  time  to  obey 
me.  Thou  dost  not  know  what  women  are,  and  how 
they  like  to  be  handled.  Wait,  and  thou  shalt  see 
something  better.  Avdotia,"  he  called  again.  "Is 
Marie  Ivanovna  here?"  he  asked,  when  she  came  in 
response  to  his  call.  "Yes,  since  three  hours,"  was  the 
reply.    "Call  her  here." 

A  young  woman  of  about  twenty-five  years  of  age 
appeared.  She  was  very  well  dressed  in  rich  furs, 
and  ran  up  to  Rasputin,  kneeling  before  hmi,  and  kiss- 
ing with  fervour  his  dirty  hands. 

"How  long  hast  thou  been  here?"  he  asked. 

"About  three  hours,  Batiouschka,"  she  answered. 

"This  is  well,  thou  art  to  remain  here  until  mid- 
night, and  neither  to  eat  or  to  drink  all  that  time,  thou 
hearest?" 

"Yes,  Batiouschka,"  was  the  reply,  uttered  in  tim- 
id, frightened  tones. 

"Now  go  into  the  next  room,  kneel  down  before  the 


98    Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Ikon,  and  wait  for  me  without  moving.  Thou  must 
not  move  until  I  come." 

She  kissed  his  hands  once  more,  prostrated  herself 
on  the  floor  before  him  three  times  in  succession,  and 
then  retired  with  the  look  of  being  in  a  kind  of  trance 
during  which  she  could  neither  know  nor  understand 
what  was  happening  to  her. 

"If  thou  carest,  thou  canst  follow  her,  and  see 
whether  she  obeys  me  or  not,"  said  Rasputin  in  his 
usual  dry  tone. 

I  declined  the  invitation,  protesting  that  I  had  never 
doubted  but  that  the  "Prophet"  would  be  obeyed, 
adding,  however,  that  though  I  had  understood  he 
could  control  the  fancies  and  imagination  of  women 
gifted  with  an  exalted  temperament,  yet  I  was  not 
convinced  that  his  influence  could  be  exerted  over  un- 
emotional men,  and  that  this  was  the  one  point  which 
interested  my  friends. 

"Thou  must  not  be  curious,"  shouted  Rasputin.  "I 
am  not  here  to  tell  thee  the  reasons  for  what  I  choose 
to  do.  It  should  suffice  thee  to  know  that  I  would 
at  once  return  to  Pokrovskoie  if  ever  I  thought  my 
services  were  useless  to  my  countrj^  Russia  is  gov- 
erned by  fools.  Yes,  they  are  all  of  them  fools,  these 
pigs  and  children  of  pigs,"  he  repeated  with  insistence. 
"But  I  am  not  a  fool.  I  know  what  I  want,  and  if  I 
try  to  save  my  country,  who  can  blame  me  for  it?" 

"But  Gregory  Efimitsch,"  I  insisted,  "can  you  not 
tell  me  at  least  whether  it  is  true  that  some  ministers 
do  all  that  you  tell  them?" 

"Of  course,  they  do,"  he  replied  angrily.  "They 
know  very  well  their  chairs  would  not  hold  them  long 


Rasputin  99 

if  they  didn't.  Thou  shalt  yet  see  some  surprises  be- 
fore thou  diest,  daughter,"  he  concluded  with  a  cer- 
tain melancholy  in  his  accents. 

Avdotia  entered  the  room  again. 

"Gregory  Efimitsch,"  she  said,  "there  is  Father 
John  of  Ladoga  waiting  for  you." 

"Ah!  I  had  forgotten  him."  Then  he  turned 
toward  me. 

"Listen  again,"  he  said;  "this  is  a  priest,  very 
poor,  who  is  seeking  to  be  transferred  into  another 
parish  somewhere  in  the  south.  Avdotia,  call  on  the 
telephone  the  secretary  of  the  Synod  and  tell  him 
that  I  am  very  much  surprised  to  hear  that  Father/ 
John  has  not  yet  been  appointed  to  another  parish. 
Tell  him  this  must  be  done  at  once,  and  that  he  must 
have  a  good  one.    I  require  an  immediate  answer." 

The  obedient  Avdotia  went  out  again,  and  we  could 
hear  her  once  more  talk  on  the  telephone.  "The  sec- 
retary of  the  Synod  presents  his  humble  compliments 
to  you,  Batiouschka,"  she  said  when  she  returned. 

"Who  cares  for  his  compliments?"  interrupted  Ras- 
putin. "Will  the  man  have  his  parish  or  not?  This 
is  all  that  I  want  to  know." 

"The  order  for  his  transfer  will  be  presented  for 
the  Minister's  signature  to-morrow,"  said  Avdotia. 

"This  is  right,"  sighed  Rasputin  with  relief.  And 
then  turning  to  me: 

"Art  thou  satisfied?"  he  asked,  "and  hast  thou  seen 
enough  to  tell  to  thy  friends?" 

I  declared  myself  entirely  satisfied. 

"Then  go,"  said  Rasputin.  "I  am  busy  and  cannot 
talk  to  thee  any  longer.    I  have  so  much  to  do.  Every- 


100  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

body  comes  to  me  for  something,  and  people  seem  to 
think  that  I  am  here  to  get  them  what  they  need  or 
require.  They  believe  in  Gricha,  these  poor  people, 
and  he  likes  to  help  them.  But  as  for  the  question 
of  war,  this  is  all  nonsense.  We  shall  not  have  war, 
and  if  we  have,  then  I  shall  take  good  care  it  will  not 
be  for  long." 

He  dismissed  me  with  a  nod  of  his  head,  and  his 
face  assumed  quite  a  shocked  look  when  he  found 
that  I  was  retiring  without  seeming  to  notice  the  hand 
which  he  was  awkwardly  stretching  out  to  me.  But 
I  knew  that  he  expected  people,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
to  kiss  his  dirty  fingers,  and  as  I  was  not  at  all  in- 
clined to  do  so,  I  made  as  if  I  did  not  notice  his  ges- 
ture. As  I  was  passing  into  the  next  room,  I  could 
perceive  through  a  half  open  door  leading  into  an- 
other apartment  the  young  lady  whom  Rasputin  had 
called  Marie  Ivanovna.  She  was  prostrated  before 
a  sacred  image  hanging  in  a  corner,  with  a  lamp  burn- 
ing in  front  of  it,  with  her  eyes  fixed  on  Heaven,  and 
quite  an  illuminated  expression  on  her  otherwise  plain 
features.  St.  Theresa  might  have  looked  like  that. 
But  seen  in  the  light  of  our  incredulous  Twentieth 
Century,  she  appeared  a  worthy  subject  for  Charcot, 
or  some  such  eminent  nerve  doctor,  and  her  place 
ought  to  have  been  the  hospital  of  "La  Salpetriere" 
rather  than  the  den  of  the  modern  Cagliostro,  who 
was  making  ducks  and  drakes  out  of  the  mighty  Rus- 
sian Empire. 

As  I  was  going  'down  the  stairs,  I  met  an  old  man 
slowly  climbing  them,  with  a  little  girl  whom  he  was 


Rasputin  loi 

half  carrying,  half  dragging  along  with  him.  He 
stopped  me  with  the  question: 

"Do  you  happen  to  know  wnether  the  blessed 
Gregory  receives  visitors?" 

I  replied  that  the  "Prophet"  was  at  home,  but  that 
I  could  not  say  whether  he  would  receive  any  one 
or  not. 

"It  is  for  this  innocent  I  want  to  see  him,"  moaned 
the  man.  "She  is  so  ill  and  no  doctor  can  cure  her. 
If  only  the  blessed  Gregory  would  pray  over  her,  I 
know  that  she  would  be  well  at  once.  Do  you  think 
that  he  will  do  so,  Barinia?"  the  man  added  anxiously. 

"I  am  sure  he  will,"  I  replied,  more  because  I  did 
not  know  what  to  say  rather  than  from  the  conviction 
that  Rasputin  would  receive  this  new  visitor.  I  saw 
the  old  creature  continue  his  ascent  up  the  staircase, 
and  the  whole  time  he  was  repeating  to  the  child,  "You 
shall  get  well,  quite  well.  Mania,  the  Blessed  One 
shall  make  you  quite  well." 

On  the  last  steps  before  the  stairs  ended  on  the  land- 
ing, two  men  were  busy  talking.  They  were  both  typ- 
ical Israelites,  with  hooked  nose  and  crooked  fingers. 
They  were  discussing  most  energetically  some  subject 
which  evidently  was  absorbing  their  attention  to  an 
uncommon  degree,  and  discussing  it  in  German,  too. 

"You  are  quite  sure  that  we  can  oiFer  him  20  per 
cent?"  one  was  saying. 

"Quite  sure,  the  concession  is  worth  a  million;  the 
whole  thing  is  to  obtain  it  before  the  others  come  on 
the  scene." 

"Who  are  the  others?"  asked  the  first  of  the  two 
men. 


102  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

"The  Russo- Asiatic  Bank,"  replied  the  second. 
"You  see  the  whole  matter  lies  in  the  rapidity  with 
which  the  thing  is  made.  The  only  one  who  can  per- 
suade the  minister  to  sign  the  paper  is  the  old  man 
upstairs,"  and  he  pointed  out  toward  Rasputin's 
apartment.  Thereupon  the  two  in  their  turn  started 
to  mount  the  steps. 

My  first  interview  with  Rasputin,  all  the  details  of 
which  I  wrote  down  in  my  diary  when  I  got  home, 
gave  me  some  inkling  as  to  the  different  intrigues 
which  were  going  on  around  this  remarkable  per- 
sonage. It  failed,  however,  to  make  me  understand 
by  what  means  he  had  managed  to  acquire,  if  he  real- 
ly acquired,  a  fact  of  which  I  still  doubted,  the  strong 
influence  which  he  liked  to  give  the  impression  he  ex- 
ercised. It  was  quite  possible  that  he  had  contrived 
through  the  magnetic  gifts  with  v/hich  he  was  endowed 
to  subdue  to  his  will  the  hysterical  women,  whose  big- 
otry and  mystical  tendencies  he  had  exalted  to  the 
highest  pitch  possible.  But  how  could  he,  a  common 
peasant,  without  any  education,  knowledge  of  the 
world  or  of  mankind,  have  imbued  ministers  and 
statesmen  with  such  a  dread  that  they  found  them- 
selves ready  to  do  anything  at  his  bidding  and  to  dis- 
pense favours,  graces  and  lucrative  appointments  to 
the  people  whom  he  called  to  their  attention.  There 
was  evidently  something  absolutelj^  abnormal  in  the 
whole  thing,  and  it  was  the  reason  for  this  abnor- 
mality that  I  began  to  seek. 

This  search  did  not  prove  easy  at  first,  but  in  time, 
by  talking  with  persons  who  saw  much  of  Rasputin 
and  of  the  motley  crew  which  surrounded  him,  I  con- 


Rasputin  103 

trived  to  form  some  opinion  as  to  the  cause  of  his  suc- 
cess. It  seemed  to  me  that  he  was  the  tool  of  a  strong 
though  small  party  or  group  of  men,  desirous  of  using 
him  as  a  means  to  attain  their  own  ends.  There  is  noth- 
ing easier  in  the  world  than  to  make  or  to  mar  a  repu- 
tation, and  it  is  sufficient  to  say  everywhere  that  a 
person  is  able  to  do  this  or  that  thing,  to  instil  into 
the  mind  of  the  public  at  large  the  conviction  that  such 
is  the  case.  This  was  precisely  what  occurred  with 
Rasputin. 

Count  Witte,  who  was  one  of  the  cleverest  political 
men  in  his  generation  and  perhaps  the  only  real  states- 
man that  Russia  has  known  in  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  ever  since  his  downfall  had  been  sighing  for  the 
day  when  he  should  be  recalled  to  power.  He  knew 
very  well  all  that  was  going  on  in  the  Imperial  family, 
and  it  was  easier  for  him  than  for  any  one  else  to 
resort  to  the  right  means  to  introduce  an  outsider  into 
that  very  closed  circle  which  surrounded  the  Czar.  So 
long  as  he  had  been  a  minister  and  had  under  his 
control  the  public  exchequer  it  had  been  relatively 
easy  for  him  to  obtain  friends,  or  rather  tools,  that  had 
helped  him  in  his  i^lans  and  ambitions.  When  this  fac- 
ulty for  persuasion  failed  him  he  bethought  himself 
to  look  elsewhere  for  an  instrument  through  which  he 
might  still  achieve  the  ends  he  had  in  mind.  He  was 
not  the  kind  of  man  who  stopped  before  any  moral 
consideration.  For  him  every  means  was  good,  pro- 
vided it  would  prove  effective.  When  he  saw  that  cer- 
tain ladies  in  the  entourage  of  the  sovereigns  had  be- 
come imbued  with  the  Rasputin  mania,  he  was  quick 
to  decide  that  this  craze  might,  if  properly  managed, 


104  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

prove  of  infinite  value  to  him.  He  therefore  not  only 
encouraged  it  as  far  as  was  in  his  power  by  pretending 
himself  to  be  impressed  by  the  prophetic  powers  of  the 
"Blessed  Gregory,"  but  he  also  contrived  very  cleverly 
to  let  the  fact  of  the  extraordinary  ascendancy  which 
Rasputin  was  rapidly  acquiring  over  the  minds  of 
powerful  and  influential  persons  become  known.  Very 
soon  everybody  talked  of  the  latter-day  saint  who  had 
suddenly  appeared  on  the  horizon  of  the  social  life 
of  St.  Petersburg,  and  the  fame  of  his  reputation 
spread  abroad  like  the  flames  of  some  great  conflagra- 
tion. 

Russia  is  essentially  the  land  where  imperial  favour- 
ites play  a  role,  and  soon  the  whole  country  was  not 
only  respecting  Rasputin,  but  was  trying  to  make  up 
to  him  and  to  obtain,  through  him,  all  kinds  of  favours 
and  material  advantages.  Together  with  Count  Witte 
a  whole  political  party  was  working,  without  the  least 
consideration  for  the  prestige  of  the  dynasty  which 
it  was  discrediting,  to  show  up  the  rulers  as  asso- 
ciated with  the  common  adventurer  and  sectarian,  who, 
under  other  conditions,  would  undoubtedly  have  found 
himself  prosecuted  by  the  police  authorities  for  his 
conduct.  They  had  other  thoughts  in  their  heads  than 
the  interests  of  the  dynasty,  these  money-seeking, 
money-grubbing,  ambitious  men.  They  represented 
nothing  beyond  the  desire  to  become  powerful  and 
wealthy.  What  they  wanted  was  important  posts 
which  would  give  them  the  opportunity  to  indulge  in 
various  speculations  and  more  or  less  fraudulent  busi- 
ness undertakings  they  contemplated. 

Russia  at  the  time  was  beginning  to  be  seized  with 


Rasputin  105 

that  frenzy  for  stock-exchange  transactions,  share 
buying  and  selling,  railway  concessions  and  mining  en- 
terprises which  reached  its  culminating  point  before 
the  begimiing  of  the  war.  JMen  without  any  social 
standing,  and  with  more  than  shady  pasts,  were  com- 
ing forward  and  acquiring  the  reputation  of  being 
lucky  speculators  capable  in  case  of  necessity  of  de- 
veloping into  clever  statesmen.  These  men  began  to 
seek  their  inspirations  in  Berlin,  and  through  the 
numerous  German  spies  with  which  St.  Petersburg 
abounded  they  entered  into  relations  with  the  German 
Intelligence  Department,  whose  interests  they  made 
their  own,  because  they  believed  that  a  war  might  put 
an  end  to  the  industrial  development  of  the  country, 
and  thus  interfere  with  their  various  speculations. 
The  French  alliance  was  beginning  to  bore  those  who 
had  got  out  of  it  all  that  they  had  ever  wanted ;  it  was 
time  something  new  should  crop  up,  and  the  German 
and  Russian  Jews,  in  whose  hands  the  whole  industry 
and  commerce  of  the  Russian  Empire  lay  concen- 
trated, began  to  preach  the  necessity  of  an  under- 
standing with  the  great  state  whose  nearest  neighbour 
it  was.  A  rapprochement  between  the  Hohenzollerns 
and  the  Romanoffs  began  to  be  spoken  of  openly  as 
a  political  necessity,  and  it  was  then  that,  thanks  to 
a  whole  series  of  intrigues,  the  Czar  was  induced  to 
go  himself  to  Berlin  to  attend  the  nuptials  of  the  only 
daughter  of  the  Kaiser,  the  Brunswick. 

This  momentous  journey  to  Berlin  was  undertaken 
partly  on  account  of  the  representations  of  Rasputin 
to  the  Empress,  whose  love  for  peace  was  very  well 
known.    Europe  had  just  gone  through  the  anxiety 


io6  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

caused  by  the  Balkan  crisis,  and  it  was  repeated  every- 
where in  St.  Petersburg  that  a  demonstration  of  some 
kind  had  to  be  made  in  favour  of  peace  in  general  and 
also  to  prove  to  the  world  that  the  great  Powers  were 
determined  not  to  allow  quarrels  in  Serbia,  Bulgaria 
and  Greece  to  trouble  the  security  of  the  world.  The 
marriage  festivities  of  which  Berlin  became  the  the- 
atre at  the  time  seemed  a  fit  opportunity  for  this  dem- 
onstration. The  bureaucratic  circles  in  the  Russian 
capital  and  the  influence  of  Rasputin  were  used  to 
bring  about  this  trip  of  the  Czar. 

Rasputin  was  thus  fast  becoming  a  personage, 
simply  because  it  suited  certain  people — the  pro-Ger- 
man party,  to  use  the  right  word  at  last — to  represent 
him  as  being  important.  They  pushed  things  so  far 
that  many  ministers  and  persons  in  high  places  re- 
fused on  purpose  certain  things  which  were  asked  of 
them  and  which  were  absolutely  easy  for  them  to  per- 
form simply  because  they  wished  Rasputin  to  ask  for 
them  for  those  who  were  weary  of  always  meeting 
with  a  non  possumus  in  questions  for  which  they  re- 
quired the  help  of  the  Administration. 

Rasputin's  various  intermediaries,  through  whom 
one  had  to  pass  before  one  could  approach  him,  sold 
their  help  for  more  or  less  large  sums  of  money,  and 
thus  began  a  period  of  vulgar  agiotage,  to  use  the 
French  expression,  of  which  Russia  was  the  stage, 
and  Rasputin,  together  with  the  men  who  used  him, 
the  moving  spirits.  I  very  nearly  said  the  evil  spirits. 
But  of  this,  more  later  on. 


CHAPTER  V 

I  MUST  now  make  one  remark  which  is  absolutely 
necessary  in  order  to  enable  the  foreign  readers  to 
understand  how  the  numerous  legends  which  were  con- 
nected with  Rasputin  and  the  influence  of  the  latter 
on  the  course  of  public  affairs  could  come  to  be  ac- 
cepted by  the  nation  at  large.  One  can  seek  its  prin- 
cipal reason  in  the  tendency  which  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment has  cultivated  since  immemorial  times  to  for- 
bid the  open  discussion  of  certain  things  and  facts. 
At  the  time  about  which  I  am  writing  present  military 
censorship  did  not  exist,  and  there  was  no  war  which 
could  have  justified  the  control  by  the  government 
of  the  publication  by  the  daily  press  of  the  current 
events  of  the  day.  Yet  the  censors  did  not  allow  any 
mention  of  Rasputin  to  be  made  in  any  organ  of  pub- 
licity. Thanks  to  this  senseless  interdict,  it  helped  the 
invention  of  the  most  unbelievable  tales  concerning 
him  and  the  attitude  which  he  had  adopted  in  regard 
to  state  affairs,  with  which  he  had  begun  to  occupy 
himself,  much  to  the  dismay  of  those  who  had  by  that 
time  learned  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  the  "Prophet" 
was  but  the  plaything  of  men  far  cleverer  than  him- 
self and  50,000  times  more  dangerous. 

St.  Petersburg  has  always  been  famed  for  its  gos- 
siping propensities,  and  in  no  place  in  the  whole  world 
do  the  most  incomprehensible  rumours  start  and  flour- 

107 


lo8  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ish  with  the  rapidity  that  they  do  in  the  Russian  cap- 
ital. What  the  newspapers  are  forbidden  to  mention 
is  told  by  one  person  to  another,  whispered  from  one 
ear  to  another  and  discussed  everywhere,  in  clubs, 
drawing  rooms,  restaurants,  in  the  houses  of  the 
proudest  aristocrats  as  well  as  in  the  dwellings  of  the 
humblest  citizens.  Nowhere  does,  or  rather,  did,  be- 
cause I  believe  this  has  become  impossible  nowadays, 
the  telephone  contribute  more  to  relate  all  kind  of 
gossip  concerning  both  private  people  and  public  mat- 
ters. Of  course,  as  there  existed  no  possibility  of 
controlling  all  that  was  being  related  under  the  seal 
of  secrecy  all  over  St.  Petersburg,  the  most  improb- 
able rumours  were  put  in  circulation  and  were  carried 
about  not  only  in  the  town  itself,  but  in  the  provinces, 
where  the  travellers  returning  from  St.  Petersburg 
were  but  too  glad  to  repeat  with  considerable  addi- 
tions all  that  they  had  heard  in  the  capital. 

The  very  secrecy  which  was  enjoined  by  the  authori- 
ties in  regard  to  Rasputin  added  to  the  latter's  im- 
portance and  transformed  him  into  a  kind  of  legend- 
ary personage,  either  too  holy  or  too  bad  to  be  men- 
tioned. Soon  all  kinds  of  things  in  which  he  had  had 
absolutely  no  part  began  to  be  attributed  to  him,  and 
many  persons,  earnestly  believing  him  to  be  all-power- 
ful, took  to  asking  his  help  not  only  in  the  matter  of 
their  administrative  careers,  but  also  in  questions 
where  their  private  life  and  private  interests  were  in- 
volved. It  happened  every  day  that  a  man  who  had 
a  lawsuit  of  a  doubtful  character  sought  out  Rasputin, 
hoping  that  he  might  be  able  to  put  in  a  word  capable 
of  influencing  the  judges  before  whom  the  case  was 


Rasputin  109 

to  be  tried.  As  it  was  absolutely  impossible  for  any 
one  to  approach  him  without  passing  through  an  in- 
termediary of  some  kind,  it  was  generally  this  inter- 
mediary who  began  the  regular  plundering  of  the 
pockets  of  all  the  unfortunate  petitioners  who  had 
hoped  to  retrieve  their  fortunes  by  an  appeal  to  the 
"Prophet's"  protection.  This  plundering  went  on  as 
long  as  the  victim  had  a  penny  to  spare  and  a  hope 
to  live  upon. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  liberal  parties  in  the  coun- 
try began  to  be  seriously  alarmed  at  the  importance 
which  this  uncouth  peasant  was  assuming,  and  they 
it  was  who  helped  by  the  anxiety  which  they  openly 
manifested  to  set  the  general  public  thinking  about 
him  more  than  it  ought  to  have  done.  In  the  Duma 
the  name  of  Rasputin  was  mentioned  with  something 
akin  to  horror,  and  allusions  without  number  were 
made  concernmg  the  "Dark  Powers,"  as  they  were 
called,  who  were  grasping  in  their  hands  the  conduct 
of  pubhc  affairs.  The  "Prophet"  began  to  be  men- 
tioned as  the  scourge  of  Russia  long  before  he  had 
become  one.  His  followers,  on  the  contrary,  made 
no  secret  of  his  ever-growing  importance,  and  invented 
on  their  side  any  number  of  tales  absolutely  devoid 
of  truth  and  tending  to  prove  that  nothing  whatever 
was  done  in  regard  to  the  management  of  state  affairs 
without  his  having  been  previously  consulted.  Who 
consulted  him  no  one  knows,  and  no  one  could  tell. 
Certainly  it  was  not  the  Emperor,  who  had,  when  the 
"Prophet"  once  or  twice  had  attempted  to  touch  upon 
this  point  in  his  presence,  rebuked  him  most  sharply; 
certainly!  it  was  not  the  Empress,  who  at  that  time 


no  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

had  never  yet  cared  for  politics,  whether  foreign  or 
domestic.  It  was  also  not  the  ministers,  and  most 
certainly  it  was  not  the  leaders  of  any  party  in  the 
Duma,  because  all  parties  there  were  agreed  as  to 
one  thing,  and  that  was  a  thorough  detestation  of 
Rasputin  and  of  the  whole  crew  which  surrounded  him 
and  without  which  he  could  not  exist.  Who  consulted 
him,  then?  No  one  knew,  and  very  probably  no  one 
cared  to  know.  But  the  fact  that  he  was  consulted 
was  an  established  one,  most  probably  due  to  the  ef- 
forts of  those  persons  in  whose  interests  it  lay  to 
represent  him  as  the  deus  ex  machina  without  whom 
nothing  could  be  done  in  general,  and  upon  whom 
everything  more  or  less  depended. 

It  was  even  related  in  St.  Petersburg  that  one  day, 
during  an  audience  which  he  had  had  with  the  Czar, 
Mr.  Rodzianko,  the  President  of  the  Duma,  had  at- 
tempted a  remonstrance  on  the  subject  of  Rasputin 
for  which  he  had  been  severely  reproved  by  the  Sov- 
ereign. Personally,  I  do  not  believe  for  one  single 
instant  that  such  an  incident  ever  took  place.  For  one 
thing,  no  one,  not  even  Mr.  Rodzianko,  would  have 
dared  to  talk  to  the  Emperor  about  such  an  unsavoury 
subject  as  that  of  the  "Prophet,"  even  if  he  had  been 
endowed  with  a  moral  courage  far  superior  to  that  of 
the  President  of  the  Duma.  Then,  again,  the  well- 
informed  were,  at  the  time  I  am  referring  to,  far  too 
cognisant  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  way  of  court 
intrigues  not  to  understand  that  all  protestations 
against  the  constant  presence  of  Rasputin  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  Imperial  family  would  have  led  to  nothing, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  those  upon  whom  it  de- 


Rasputin  in 

pended  did  not  and  could  not  even  recognise  the  dan- 
ger that  it  presented,  because  they  simply  looked  upon 
him  as  upon  a  holy  man.  He  soothed  the  anxieties  of 
the  Empress  in  regard  to  her  small  son,  promising  her 
that  the  day  would  come  when,  thanks  to  his  prayers, 
the  child  would  outgrow  his  delicacy.  He  amused  the 
Emperor  by  talking  to  him  in  a  rough  but  bright  lan- 
guage, describing  bluntly  all  the  incidents  that  had 
reached  his  knowledge  generally  through  the  channel 
of  those  interested  in  having  them  conveyed  to  the 
Sovereign  in  the  way  that  best  served  their  own  inter- 
ests. But  Nicholas  II.  never  took  him  seriously  into 
account,  and  therefore  could  hardly  have  been  brought 
to  think  that  others  were  doing  so,  and  doing  it  with 
a  vengeance  into  the  bargain. 

Rasputin,  however,  was  of  a  different  opinion,  and 
in  his  desire  that  others  should  share  it  he  liked  to 
boast  in  public  of  the  things  which  he  had  not  done 
and  of  the  words  which  he  had  not  spoken.  He  was 
upon  excellent  terms  with  some  of  the  palace  servants, 
in  whom  he  had  found  comrades  and  with  whom  he 
felt  more  at  his  ease  than  with  any  one  else.  He  got 
them  to  relate  to  him  all  that  was  going  on  in  the 
family  of  the  Czar.  He  very  cleverly  made  use  of  this 
knowledge  later  on.  It  is  well  known  in  Russia  that 
the  Emperor  himself  was  watched  by  the  secret  po- 
lice, not  only  in  view  of  his  personal  safety,  but  also 
because  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the  police  to  be  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  all  that  he  did  and  with  the 
remarks  it  pleased  him  to  make.  And  the  secret  po- 
lice were  working  hand  in  hand  with  Rasputin.  Their 
provocative  agents,  of  which  there  existed  consider- 


112  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

able  numbers,  were  everywhere  talking  about  the 
"Prophet's"  influence  and  ever-growing  importance, 
as  well  as  relating  in  all  the  restaurants  and  public 
places  in  the  capital  wonderful  and  improbable  tales 
concerning  him  and  his  doings.  From  these  they  were 
spread  among  the  public  and  penetrated  to  people 
who  otherwise  would  never  have  had  the  possibility 
of  hearing  anything  about  them.  Among  those  who 
showed  themselves  the  most  active  and  the  most  eager 
to  talk  about  Rasputin  and  about  the  influence  which 
he  was  acquiring  were  persons  well  known  for  their 
German  sympathies  and  others  suspected  of  being 
German  agents  in  disguise. 

At  that  period  the  great  aim  of  the  German  For- 
eign Office  was  to  bring  about  the  collapse  of  the 
Franco-Russian  alliance,  and  it  set  itself  most  cleverly 
to  try  to  bring  it  about.  Among  the  persons  whom 
it  employed  for  the  purpose  was  Rasputin,  perhaps 
unknown  to  himself,  but  led  by  men  like  Count  Witte, 
who  had  always  been  pro-German  in  sympathy  and 
who  had  almost  engaged  himself  to  bring  about  a 
rapprochement  between  the  St.  Petersburg  and  the 
Berlin  Court.  Working  with  Witte  was  ^Ir.  Man- 
usevitsch  Maniuloff ,  one  of  the  most  abominable  secret 
agents  the  world  has  ever  known,  who  in  his  un- 
scrupulousness  would  have  done  anything  he  was 
asked,  provided  he  were  paid  high  enough.  For  years 
he  had  been  in  receipt  of  German  subsidies.  By  dint 
of  blackmailing  he  had  contrived  to  maintain  himself 
in  the  capacity  of  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Novoie 
Vremia,  where  he  wrote  all  that  was  asked  of  him 
for  a  consideration,  the  extent  and  nature  of  which 


Rasputin  113 

depended  upon  circumstances.  He  was  also  on  the 
staff  of  the  Russian  political  Intelligence  Depart- 
ment, to  which  he  rendered  such  services  as  he  consid- 
ered to  be  advantageous  to  himself  without  the  least 
thought  of  the  use  these  might  be  to  the  State  which 
employed  him. 

Mr.  Maniuloff  was  a  spendthrift  who  never  could 
deny  himself  any  of  the  good  things  of  life.  These 
are  always  considered  to  be  expensive  ones,  and  con- 
sequently he  had  expensive  tastes.  His  capacity  of 
police  agent  had  allowed  him  to  blackmail  to  ad- 
vantage people  against  whom  he  had  discovered,  or 
thought  he  had  discovered,  something  in  the  way  of 
dangerous  political  opinions.  One  of  his  favourite  oc- 
cupations consisted  in  going  about  among  these  peo- 
ple and  hinting  to  them  that  unless  they  showed  them- 
selves willing  to  minister  to  his  numerous  wants  they 
might  find  themselves  one  day  in  a  very  tight  corner. 
Generally  these  tactics  proved  successful,  until  he  was 
caught  red-handed  in  Paris,  where  he  had  been  sent  on 
a  special  mission,  tampering  with  the  funds  of  which 
he  had  control.  This  accident  caused  him  to  be  dis- 
missed. But  the  man  knew  far  too  much  and  had 
been  far  too  advanced  in  the  confidence  of  his  supe- 
riors for  them  to  be  able  to  do  without  his  services, 
so  he  was  allowed  to  return  to  Russia  and  enroll  him- 
self in  journalism,  thus  to  make  himself  useful  again. 
He  had  a  wonderful  intelligence  and  was  an  excellent 
worker  and  talked  fluently  in  most  of  the  European 
languages.  He  therefore  made  his  way  up  the  lad- 
der once  more,  until  at  last  he  became  the  private  sec- 
retary to  Mr.  Sturmer  when  the  latter  was  Prime 


114  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Minister,  an  advancement  that  proved  fatal  to  him 
because  it  brought  him  to  prison.  But  of  this  I  shall 
speak  later  on  when  touching  upon  the  events  which 
culminated  in  the  murder  of  Rasputin. 

Such  were  the  men  who  virtually  controlled  every 
action  of  the  "Prophet,"  and  it  is  no  wonder  if  guided 
by  them  he  sometimes  contrived  to  influence  never  the 
Czar  himself,  but  the  latter's  Ministers  and  officials 
who  had  been  told,  they  did  not  even  know  by  whom, 
but  probably  by  the  loud  voice  of  the  public,  that  to 
do  anything  to  please  Rasputin  was  to  secure  for 
oneself  the  good  graces  of  the  highest  people  in  the 
land.  As  time  went  on  the  "Prophet"  showed  himself 
less  and  less  in  public,  remaining  among  a  small  cir- 
cle of  personal  friends  whose  interest  it  was  to  repre- 
sent him  as  a  kind  of  Indian  idol,  unapproachable 
except  to  his  worshippers. 

And  in  the  meanwhile  the  ladies  who  had  been  the 
first  artisans  of  Rasputin's  favour  were  still  holding 
religious  meetings  under  his  guidance  and  still  seek- 
ing inspiration  from  his  teachings.  They  believed 
him  to  be  a  real  saint,  refused  to  admit  that  he  could 
do  anything  wrong  and  refused  to  accept  as  true  the 
rumours  which  went  about  and  which,  unfortunately 
for  the  "Prophet's"  reputation,  were  but  too  exact, 
that  he  was  fond  of  every  kind  of  riotous  living,  that 
he  spent  his  nights  in  drunken  revels  and  that  he  gave 
his  best  attention  to  brandy  mixed  with  champagne. 
His  admirers  persisted  in  seeing  in  him  the  prophet 
of  the  Almighty  and  believed  that  they  could  never 
be  saved  unless  they  conformed  to  all  the  directions 
which  it  might  please  him  to  give  them. 


Rasputin  115 

The  Rasputin  craze  became  more  violent  than  ever 
during  the  few  months  which  immediately  preceded 
the  war,  and  it  very  nearly  verged  upon  complete 
fanaticism  for  his  personality.  Everything  that  he 
did  was  considered  to  be  holy.  His  insolence  and 
arrogance,  displayed  with  increasing  violence  every 
day  and  hour,  were  almost  incredible.  This  illiterate 
peasant  dared  to  send  dirty  little  scraps  of  paper  on 
which  he  had  scribbled  a  coarse  message  to  ministers 
and  public  men  ordering  them  to  do  this  or  that  ac- 
cording to  his  pleasure,  and  presuming  to  give  them 
advice,  which  was  never  his  own,  in  matters  of  the 
utmost  public  importance.  At  first  people  had 
laughed  at  him,  but  very  soon  they  had  discovered 
that  he  could  revenge  himself  on  them  quickly  and 
effectively,  and  this  had  led  to  the  general  determina- 
tion not  to  interfere  with  him  any  more,  but  to  leave 
him  severely  alone,  no  matter  what  extravagance  he 
might  commit  or  say.  And  when  it  came  to  the  ex- 
tortion of  large  sums  of  money,  those  who  were  chal- 
lenged to  pay  them  generally  did  so  with  alacrity,  as 
happened  in  the  case  of  several  banks  to  which  Mr. 
Maniuloff  applied  for  funds,  with  the  help  of  these 
illiterate  scraps  of  paper  upon  which  Rasputin  had 
scribbled  his  desire  that  the  money  should  be  put  at 
the  disposal  of  his  "protege." 

What  I  have  been  writing  is  fact,  which  has  been 
proved  publicly,  and  never  contradicted  by  so  much 
as  one  single  word  of  protestation.  It  accounts  for 
the  hatred  with  which  the  "Prophet"  came  to  be 
viewed.  As  time  went  on  it  was  felt  that  something 
ought  to  be  attempted  against  the  imposter  who  had 


ii6  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

contrived  to  break  through  barriers  one  could  have  be- 
lieved to  be  absolutely  impregnable.  But  no  one 
knew  how  this  was  to  be  done,  and  at  the  time  I  am 
referring  to  the  idea  of  a  political  assassination  of 
Rasputin  had  not  entered  into  the  people's  heads.  It 
was  a  woman  who  was  to  bring  it  before  the  public  in 
the  following  circumstances : 

During  the  spring  of  the  year  1914,  Rasputin,  to 
the  general  surprise  of  everybody,  declared  to  his 
friends  that  he  intended  to  leave  the  capital  and  to 
return  for  a  few  months  to  his  native  village  of  Pok- 
rovskoie  in  Siberia  to  rest  from  his  labours.  Stren- 
uous efforts  were  made  to  detain  him  in  Petrograd, 
but  he  remained  inflexible  and  rudely  thrust  aside 
those  who  would  fain  have  kept  him  back.  He  declared 
that  he  was  tired  and  weary  of  the  existence  which 
he  had  been  leading  the  last  year,  and  that  the  various 
annoyances  and  difficulties  that  had  been  put  in  his 
way  by  his  numerous  enemies  had  quite  sickened  him. 
Such,  at  least,  was  the  explanation  which  he  chose  to 
give  and  to  which  he  stuck.  Others,  it  is  true,  declared 
that  the  real  reason  for  his  departure  was  that  he  had 
been  given  to  understand  that  he  would  do  better  to 
absent  himself  from  St.  Petersburg  during  the  time 
when  the  visit  of  the  President  of  the  French  Republic 
was  expected,  as  his  presence  there  might  prove  em- 
barrassing from  more  than  one  point  of  view.  The 
hint  had  enraged  him,  and  he  had  determined  to  go 
away  for  a  much  longer  time  than  he  had  been  told  to 
do.  He  had  even  declared  to  a  few  of  his  closest 
friends  that  he  was  not  going  to  return  to  the  capital 
any  more,  but  that  he  would  remain  in  Siberia,  where. 


Rasputin  117 

as  he  graphically  put  it,  "there  was  a  great  deal  more 
money  to  be  made  than  any\\^here  else  in  the  world." 

Whether  the  above  is  strictly  time  or  not,  I  am  not 
in  a  position  to  say,  but  it  does  not  sound  improbable. 
The  fact  remains  that  Rasputin  left  St.  Petersburg 
for  Pokrovskoie,  where  he  arrived  in  the  first  days  of 
June,  1914,  accompanied  by  the  "Sisters,"  who  were 
his  constant  companions.  He  was  received  with  such 
honours  that  he  might  have  been  the  Sovereign  him- 
self instead  of  the  simple  peasant  he  was.  A  crowd 
composed  of  several  thousand  men  and  women  met 
him  at  the  gates  of  the  village  and  threw  themselves 
at  his  feet  imploring  his  blessing  and  calling  upon  him 
to  pray  with  them,  and  to  show  them  the  real  way  to 
God  which  he  was  supposed  to  be  the  only  one  in 
Russia  capable  of  indicating.  For  a  few  days  this 
kind  of  thing  continued,  and  Rasputin's  house  was 
literally  besieged  by  crowds  of  people  who  had  gath- 
ered at  Pokrovskoie  from  all  parts  of  Siberia  eager 
to  pay  homage  to  their  national  hero,  for  such  he  was 
considered  to  be.  Rasputin  smiled  and  chuckled  and 
rubbed  his  hands,  as  was  his  wont  in  those  moments 
when  he  allowed  his  satisfaction  at  anything  to  over- 
power him.  If  in  St.  Petersburg  he  had  been  con- 
sidered as  a  prophet,  here  in  this  remote  corner  of 
Siberia  he  was  fast  becoming  a  kind  of  small  god  at 
whose  shrine  a  whole  nation  was  worshipping.  This 
was  just  the  sort  of  thing  to  please  him  and  to  make 
him  forget  any  small  unpleasantnesses  he  might  have 
experienced  before  his  departure  from  the  capital. 

One  morning,  it  was  the  13th  of  July,  1914,  Ras- 
putin was  leaving  his  house  on  his  way  to  church, 


Ii8  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

whither  it  was  his  Custom  to  repair  every  day.  On 
the  threshold  of  his  dweUing  a  woman  was  awaiting 
him.  She  had  her  face  muffled  in  a  shawl  in  spite  of 
the  warm  weather.  When  she  saw  him  she  threw  her- 
self on  her  knees  before  him,  as  persons  of  her  kind 
invariably  did  when  they  met  him.  The  "Prophet" 
stopped  and  asked  her  what  it  was  she  wanted  from 
him.  Her  only  reply  was  to  plunge  into  his  stomach 
a  large  kitchen  knife,  which  she  had  held  the  whole, 
time  hidden  under  her  shawl. 

Rasputin  uttered  one  cry  and  sank  upon  the  ground. 
The  crowd  which  was  always  following  him  rushed 
toward  him  and  lifted  him  up,  while  two  local  police- 
men who  had  been  set  by  the  authorities  to  protect 
and  guard  him  threw  themselves  upon  the  woman  and 
seized  her  violently  by  both  arms.  She  remained  per- 
fectly quiet,  declaring  that  they  need  not  hold  her  as 
she  had  not  the  slightest  intention  of  running  away. 
She  knew  very  well  what  she  had  done,  and  she  had 
meant  to  do  it  for  a  long  time.  When  asked  what  had 
been  her  motives,  she  declared  that  she  would  speak 
before  the  magistrates,  and  only  asked  to  be  protected 
in  the  meanwhile  against  the  fury  of  the  mob  that 
was  threatening  to  tear  her  to  pieces  in  its  rage.  She 
did  not  seem  to  be  in  the  least  disturbed  by  what  she 
had  done  and  throughout  she  showed  the  most  extraor- 
dinary coolness  and  self-possession. 

Very  soon  it  was  ascertained  that  she  was  a  native 
of  the  government  of  Saratoff,  and  that  her  name  was 
Gousieva.  When  Rasputin  had  been  preaching  in 
Saratoff  she  was  among  the  women  who  had  been 
taken  in  by  his  speeches,  and  though  married  she  had 


Rasputin  119 

left  her  husband  and  family  to  follow  the  "Prophet." 
He  very  soon  proceeded  to  '^cleanse  her  from  her 
sins/*  according  to  his  favourite  expression.  We 
know,  of  course,  what  this  meant,  and  Gousieva,  who 
at  that  time  was  young  and  pretty,  only  shared  the 
fate  of  so  many  other  women,  deluded  by  the  mealy 
mouthed  utterances  of  the  "new  Saviour,"  that  it  was 
only  by  means  of  a  complete  union  with  himself  that 
they  could  be  saved  and  their  sins  forgiven  them.  The 
unfortunate  Gousieva  had  been  only  one  of  many. 
.When  she  had  found  it  out  an  intense  rage  had  taken 
hold  of  her,  which  had  been  further  enlianced  and 
strengthened  by  the  monk  Illiodore,  to  whom  she  had 
related  her  misfortune.  He  had  already  at  the  time 
she  sought  him  out  become  the  deadly  enemy  of  his 
former  friend  Rasputin.  The  miserable  woman  had 
lost  everything — ^home,  children,  husband,  relatives 
— on  account  of  her  mad  infatuation  for  the  deceiver 
who  had  made  her  forget  her  duties  by  the  fascination 
which  he  had  exercised  over  her  weak  mind.  She 
swore  that  she  would  revenge  herself  and  kill  the 
"Prophet,"  so  that  at  least  other  women  could  be 
saved  from  the  awful  fate  which  had  befallen  her. 

After  Rasputin  had  dismissed  her  she  had  been 
compelled  to  lead  a  dreadful  kind  of  existence  in  or- 
der to  obtain  a  piece  of  bread.  At  last  she  had  become 
attacked  by  an  awful  disease,  which  had  already  eaten 
away  a  part  of  her  nose  and  completely  disfigured  her 
face.  This,  too,  she  attributed  to  the  "Prophet."  In 
her  despair  she  decided  that  as  she  had  nothing  to  lose 
the  best  and  only  thing  left  for  her  to  do  was  to  try 
and  rid  the  world  from  the  awful  impostor  who  had 


120  Rasputin  and  tKe  Russian  Revolution: 

caused  so  much  misery,  brought  about  such  abom- 
inable misfortunes  and  occasioned  so  much  distress 
to  such  a  number  of  innocent  women.  She  had  fol- 
lowed Rasputin  for  a  long  time  in  St.  Petersburg, 
but  had  never  been  able  to  approach  him  near  enough 
to  execute  her  design.  But  when  it  had  come  to  her 
knowledge  that  he  was  returning  to  Pokrovskoie  she 
had  taken  it  as  an  indication  that  the  Almighty  would 
be  with  her  in  the  deed  which  she  was  contemplating, 
and  she,  too,  started  for  the  distant  Siberian  village. 
There  she  had  spent  three  days  waiting  for  a"  favour- 
able opportunity  until  the  morning  when  she  had  at 
last  succeeded  in  getting  close  enough  to  him  to  plant 
in  his  body  the  knife  which  she  had  carried  about 
with  her  for  more  than  two  years. 

This  whole  story  was  related  by  Gousieva  with  the 
utmost  composure,  and  without  any  hesitation  at  all. 
She  considered  Rasputin  as  the  incarnation  of  the 
devil,  and  she  had  thought  it  a  good  deed  to  put  him 
out  of  the  way  of  committing  any  more  evil.  For  the 
rest,  she  did  not  care  what  was  to  become  of  her.  As 
it  was  she  knew  that  she  had  not  long  to  live,  and 
with  the  illness  with  which  she  was  afflicted  existence 
in  itself  was  not  so  sweet  that  she  should  sacrifice  her 
revenge  in  order  to  retain  it.  She  had  had  no  accom- 
plices, and  she  had  consulted  no  one.  In  spite  of  the 
efforts  which  were  made  to  induce  her  to  say  that  she 
had  acted  under  the  directions  and  the  inspiration  of 
Illiodore,  she  denied  it  absolutely,  adding  that  had  she 
spoken  to  him  about  her  intention  she  knew  that  he 
would  have  dissuaded  her  from  it  and  that  he  might 


Rasputin  I2i 

even  have  warned  the  police  so  as  to  frustrate  her  de- 
sign. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Rasputin  had  been  carried  back 
to  his  room  and  telegrams  dispatched  everywhere  for 
a  doctor.  The  wound,  though  deep,  was  not  a  serious 
one  and  it  had  not  attacked  any  vital  organs.  The 
man  was  in  no  danger,  but  his  disciples  chose  to  say 
that  it  was  a  miracle  of  Providence  that  he  had  not 
succumbed  at  once  under  the  blow  which  had  been 
dealt  at  him.  The  "Prophet,"  when  he  had  felt  him- 
self stabbed,  had  cried  out  that  some  one  was  to  "ar- 
rest that  b — h  who  had  hit  him."  Then  he  caused 
several  telegrams  to  be  sent  to  his  friends  in  St. 
Petersburg  in  which  he  described  the  attempt  against 
his  life  as  the  work  of  the  devil,  who  had  inspired  the 
woman  Gousieva  ar^  induced  her  to  commit  her 
abominable  action.  He  added  that  at  the  moment 
when  her  weapon  had  touched  him  he  had  seen  an 
angel  descend  from  Heaven,  stop  her  arm,  and  then 
put  a  hand  on  his  wound  so  as  to  stop  it  from  bleed- 
ing, and  that  it  was  only  due  to  this  direct  interven- 
tion of  the  Almighty  that  he  had  escaped  with  his 
life.  Of  course,  the  story  was  believed  by  the  credu- 
lous people  who  accepted  every  one  of  his  words  as  a 
manifestation  of  the  will  of  the  Lord,  and  he  became 
more  than  ever  a  saint,  to  whom  the  people  began  to 
raise  altars,  and  to  regard  in  the  light  of  another  Sa- 
viour come  to  redeem  mankind  from  the  terrors  of  sin. 

In  St.  Petersburg  the  news  of  the  attempted  assas- 
sination of  Rasputin  had  produced  an  immense  im- 
pression, and  had  been  commented  upon  in  different 
ways.    Some  people  saw  in  it  an  intervention  of  the 


122  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

secret  police,  who  had  been  told  to  get  rid  in  some  way 
or  other  of  a  man  who  was  fast  becoming  a  public 
nuisance  and  embarrassment  for  everybody,  even  for 
those  who  had  benefited  through  their  acquaintance 
with  him.  Others  declared  that  it  was  a  just  punish- 
ment for  his  evil  deeds,  and  that  the  woman  Gousieva 
had  not  been  badly  inspired  when  she  had  tried  to 
revenge  herself  on  him  for  the  terrible  wrong  which 
he  had  done  to  her.  Every  one  was  anxious  to  learn 
how  the  news  would  be  received  in  certain  quarters 
and  among  the  bevy  of  feminine  worshippers  whose 
existence  was  wrapped  up  in  that  of  Rasputin.  Public 
curiosity,  however,  was  not  destined  to  be  satisfied, 
because  nothing  was  heard  concerning  the  feelings  of 
these  adepts  of  his  on  this  remarkable  occasion. 

The  only  thing  which  one  learned  in  regard  to  the 
whole  affair  was  that  two  ladies  who  figured  among 
his  most  prominent  supporters  had  started  at  once  for 
Pokrovskoie,  and  that  a  celebrated  surgeon  from 
Kazan  had  also  been  requested  to  go  to  see  him  re- 
gardless of  what  his  journey  might  cost. 

The  care  that  was  taken  of  Rasputin  soon  restored 
him  to  his  usual  health,  and  he  became  at  once  a  mar- 
tyr. When  the  first  moment  of  fright — and,  being  a 
great  coward,  he  had  been  thoroughly  frightened — 
had  passed  away,  he  felt  rather  satisfied  at  the  fuss 
which  was  made  about  him,  and  more  grateful  than 
anything  else  to  the  woman  Gousieva  for  having  given 
him  such  a  splendid  opportunity  to  recover  some  of 
his  popularity,  which  he  had  feared  might  decrease 
during  his  absence  from  St.  Petersburg.  The  fact 
that  his  attempted  assassination  had  brought  his  name 


Rasputin  123 

and  his  person  once  more  prominently  before  the  pub- 
lic pleased  him,  and  his  natural  cunning  made  him  at 
once  grasp  the  whole  importance  of  the  event  and  the 
capital  that  might  be  made  out  of  it.  He  was  the 
first  to  plead  for  indulgence  for  his  would-be  mur- 
deress, perhaps  out  of  fear  of  the  scandal  which  a 
trial  might  produce,  a  trial  during  which  a  lawyer 
might  be  found  daring  enough  and  enterprising 
enough  to  speak  openly  of  the  reasons  which  had 
driven  the  accused  woman  to  this  act  of  madness,  and 
to  disclose  certain  episodes  in  the  past  existence  of 
the  "Prophet"  which  the  latter  would  not  have  cared 
at  all  to  become  the  property  of  the  public.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  authorities,  too,  felt  that  a  public  trial 
would  only  cause  a  most  painful  sensation,  by  the  men- 
tion of  names  which  it  was  of  the  highest  importance 
to  keep  outside  the  question.  The  culprit  herself  in- 
sisted upon  being  brought  before  a  jury,  declaring 
that  she  had  sought  publicity  and  that  she  would  not 
rest  until  she  had  it;  that,  moreover,  she  did  not  in- 
tend to  be  cheated  out  of  her  revenge  or  prevented 
from  exposing  the  man  in  whom  she  saw  the  most  fla- 
grant and  daring  impostor,  a  creature  for  whom  noth- 
ing in  the  world  was  sacred  and  who  would  not  hesi- 
tate at  anything  in  order  to  come  to  his  ends.  She 
insisted  on  the  fact  that  she  would  have  rendered  a 
public  service  to  the  country  had  she  killed  him,  and 
that,  whatever  happened  to  her  personally,  the  ven- 
geance of  God  would  one  day  overtake  "Gricha"  and 
his  wickedness,  and  that  others  would  be  found  who 
would  follow  the  example  which  she  had  given  to 
them  and  not  fail  as  she  had  failed. 


124  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Gousieva  told  all  this  to  the  examining  magistrate 
to  whom  had  been  intrusted  the  preliminary  inquest, 
and  she  persisted  in  her  allegations,  notwithstanding 
all  the  efforts  and  even  the  threats  which  were  made 
to  her  to  induce  her  to  retract  her  first  deposition. 
The  authorities  found  themselves  in  a  dilemma  from 
which  they  did  not  know  how  to  extricate  themselves, 
when  Rasputin  himself  came  to  their  rescue. 

"The  woman  is  mad,"  he  said.  "All  that  she  re- 
lates is  but  the  ravings  of  a  madwoman.  Lock  her 
up  in  an  asylum,  and  let  us  hear  nothing  more  about 
her!" 

This  piece  of  advice  was  considered  to  be  the  best 
possible  under  the  circumstances,  and  Gousieva  was 
placed  first  in  a  hospital  for  observation  and  then  a 
few  months  later  adjudged  insane  by  order.  She  was 
removed  to  a  madhouse,  no  one  knows  exactly  where, 
and  there  she  probably  is  locked  up  to  this  day  un- 
less death  in  some  shape  or  form  has  overtaken  her 
and  removed  her  forever  out  of  a  world  which  cer- 
tainly had  never  proved  a  kind  one  for  her. 

In  the  meanwhile  her  victim  was  mending  rapidly, 
and  three  weeks  after  his  accident  he  was  removed 
first  to  Tobolsk  and  then  to  St.  Petersburg.  His 
disciples  were  preparing  a  great  reception  for  him, 
and  he  himself  was  openly  talking  of  all  that  he  would 
do  on  his  return  and  of  the  revenge  which  he  was 
going  to  take  on  the  people  to  whose  influence  he  at- 
tributed the  "mad"  act  of  the  woman  who  had  attacked 
him.  He  made  the  greatest  efforts  to  connect  lUio- 
dore  with  the  attempt  of  Gousieva,  and  he  was  quite 
furious  to  see  them  fail,  declaring  that  when  he  was 


Rasputin  125 

once  more  in  the  capital  he  would  make  it  his  busi- 
ness to  find  out  whether  it  was  not  possible  to  discover 
some  points  of  association  between  the  unfrocked 
monk  and  the  woman  whose  knife  had  been  raised 
against  him.  He  further  made  no  secret  of  his  in- 
tention to  obtain  the  proofs  which  he  needed,  thanks 
to  the  intelligence  and  with  the  help  of  his  friend  Mr. 
Manassevitsch-Maniuloff.  Whether  he  would  have 
succeeded  or  not,  it  is  difficult  to  say,  because  when 
Rasputin  returned  to  St.  Petersburg  and  was  en- 
abled to  visit  his  friends  at  Tsarskoie  Selo  once  more, 
there  were  other  preoccupations  which  were  troubling 
the  public  more  than  anything  connected  with  his  in- 
dividuality.   War  had  broken  out  with  Germany. 


CHAPTER  VI 

It  was  perhaps  a  fortunate  thing  for  Rasputin 
that  he  was  not  in  St.  Petersburg  when  Germany  at- 
tacked us  so  unexpectedly.  It  is  quite  probable  that 
if  he  had  found  hunself  in  the  capital  at  the  time  he 
would  have  intrigued  in  so  many  ways  that  he  might 
have  put  even  the  Sovereign  in  an  embarrassing  posi- 
tion, for  any  hesitations  in  the  decisions  of  the  Gov- 
ernment would  have  been  attributed  to  the  influence 
of  the  "Prophet."  At  this  time  of  national  crisis,  it 
certainly  would  have  been  a  misfortune  if  anything 
had  occurred  likely  to  endanger  the  prestige  of  the 
dynasty.  But  in  regard  to  Rasputin  himself,  it  is 
likely  that  his  absence  delayed  the  conspiracy  which 
resulted  in  his  death,  as  he  was  forgotten  for  the 
moment,  so  intenselj'-  was  public  opinion  preoccupied 
with  the  grave  events  that  were  taking  place. 

Later  on,  after  the  disaster  of  Tannenberg,  the 
friends  of  the  "Prophet,"  in  order  to  win  back  for  him 
some  popularity,  spread  the  rumour  that  he  had  from 
his  distant  Pokrovskoie  written  to  one  of  his  warmest 
patronesses,  Madame  W,  that  he  had  had  a  vision  dur- 
ing which  it  had  been  revealed  to  him  that  the  Rus- 
sian armies  were  to  march  immediately  upon  eastern 
Prussia,  where  it  would  be  possible  to  deal  a  decisive 
blow  at  the  enemy,  and  to  do  so  with  all  their  strength. 
Now  this  is  precisely  what  was  not  done,  owing  to  the 

126 


Rasputin  127 

military  misconception  of  the  Russian  General  Staff, 
which  for  political  reasons  started  to  proceed  to  the 
conquest  of  Galicia,  that  could  have  been  delayed  with 
advantage  until  after  the  Prussian  monster,  if  not 
killed,  had  been  at  least  seriously  injured. 

The  enemies  of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  of  whom 
there  were  plenty,  seized  hold  of  this  rumour,  and 
rallied  themselves  round  Rasputin,  declaring  that  once 
more  God  had  intervened  in  favour  of  Holy  Russia, 
in  blessing  it  with  a  prophet  whose  clear  glance  and 
visions  could  be  relied  upon  far  better  than  the  stra- 
tegical combinations  of  the  Grand  Duke  that  had 
proved  such  a  complete  failure.  The  Grand  Duke 
was  accused  of  having  despatched  two  army  corps  into 
the  Mazurian  region  without  having  taken  sufficient 
precautions  to  insure  their  safety,  and  it  was  said 
that  the  only  one  who  had  seen  clearly  the  disaster 
which  had  overtaken  these  corps  had  been  Rasputin, 
and  that  it  had  been  revealed  to  him  direct  from 
Heaven  even  before  it  had  taken  place. 

All  this  was  great  nonsense,  of  course,  but  never- 
theless it  did  a  considerable  amount  of  harm.  One 
must  not  lose  sight  of  one  fact  when  one  judges  the 
whole  history  of  the  impostor  who  for  so  many  years 
contrived  to  occupy  with  his  personality  the  attention 
of  the  Russian  public,  and  that  is  that  his  sermons  and 
utterances  appealed  to  that  mystical  side  of  the  Slav 
character  which  in  all  hours  of  great  national  crises 
and  misfortunes  asserts  itself  a  manner  which  to  the 
Occidental  mind  seems  quite  incomprehensible.  It 
is  sufficient  to  have  looked  upon  the  crowds  kneeling 
in  the  streets  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  of  Moscow,  dur- 


128  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ing  those  eventful  August  days  which  saw  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  catastrophe,  to  become  persuaded  of  the 
fact  that  they  reckoned  more  on  God's  intervention 
on  their  behalf  than  on  the  efficacy  of  any  guns  or 
soldiers  to  insure  a  victory  for  the  Russian  arms. 

Rasputin,  for  a  short  period,  became  once  more  a 
national  hero,  at  least  in  the  eyes  of  the  select  circle 
that  had  first  brought  him  prominently  before  the 
public,  and  they  began  to  say  among  this  circle  that 
until  one  followed  his  directions  and  gave  oneself  up 
entirely  to  the  service  of  God  in  the  manner  it  pleased 
him  to  recommend,  the  campaign  that  had  just  be- 
gun would  never  be  won.  For  other  people,  too,  the 
return  of  the  "Prophet"  to  Petrograd,  as  St.  Peters- 
burg had  been  rechristened,  was  also  a  boon.  All  the 
speculators,  army  pui'veyors  and  persons  interested  in 
army  contracts  awaited  him  with  an  impatience  which 
surpassed  every  description,  and  they  surrounded  him 
at  once  and  laid  siege,  not  so  much  to  his  person  as  to 
the  influence  which  he  was  supposed  to  possess. 

There  are  innumerable  anecdotes  about  this  agi- 
tated period  in  the  career  of  Rasputin,  each  more 
amusing  and  each  more  incredible  than  the  others. 
I  shall  here  quote  a  few: 

A  Danish  gentleman  had  arrived  in  Petrograd 
from  Copenliagen  with  a  load  of  medicines  and  dif- 
ferent pharmaceutical  products  which  he  wanted  to 
sell  to  the  Red  Cross.  He  brought  excellent  creden- 
tials with  him,  and  he  imagined  that  the  business 
would  be  a  relatively  easy  one.  But  to  his  surprise 
he  found  that  this  was  not  at  all  the  case.  Though 
the  prices  which  he  asked  for  his  goods  were  not  at 


Rasputin  129 

all  high  compared  with  those  current  in  the  Russian 
capital,  he  could  not  get  rid  of  them,  and  he  was  al- 
ways put  off  until  the  next  day.  At  last  he  became 
quite  discouraged  and  was  already  thinking  of  return- 
ing home  when  he  met  in  the  lounge  of  the  principal 
hotel  of  Petrograd  (famed  for  the  financial  transac- 
tions which  were  regularly  taking  place  under  its 
roof)  a  Jew  who,  seeing  him  looking  worried  and 
annoyed,  asked  what  was  the  matter.  The  Dane  then 
related  his  story,  adding  that  he  failed  to  understand 
why  at  a  time  when  the  things  which  he  had  brought 
with  him  v  ere  in  great  demand  he  could  not  sell  them, 
though  he  had  lowered  his  prices  to  a  point  below 
which  it  was  quite  impossible  for  him  to  go.  The 
Jew  looked  at  him  for  some  minutes,  then  asked 
him  whether  he  would  feel  inclined,  if  he  could  help 
him  to  dispose  of  his  wares  at  a  profit,  to  give  a 
large  commission  in  exchange.  The  Dane  of  coiu'se 
assented,  and  the  Jew  took  him  the  next  day  to  Ras- 
putin, to  whom  he  told  a  long  story  of  which  the  seller 
of  the  articles  in  question  understood  nothing  at  all, 
but  which  culminated  in  the  "Prophet"  scribbling 
something  in  pencil  on  a  dirty  scrap  of  paper,  and 
hjtnding  it  to  his  visitors.  The  same  afternoon  the  two 
men  went  to  the  head  offices  of  the  Red  Cross,  accom- 
panied by  another  gentleman,  who  introduced  himself 
as  Rasputin's  secretary.  To  the  intense  surprise  of 
the  Dane,  the  medicines  which  he  had  been  trying 
uselessly  to  sell  for  three  weeks  were  at  once  accepted 
on  the  producing  of  the  "Prophet's"  note,  and  sold 
at  such  an  enormous  profit  that  he  remained  abso- 
lutely astounded.    The  contract  was  signed  there  and 


130  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

then,  and  a  cheque  handed  to  the  happy  seller.  His 
two  companions  then  accompanied  him  to  the  bank, 
where  he  handed  over  to  them  their  share  in  the  trans- 
action, Rasputin's  representative  taking  the  lion's 
share  of  course,  but  whether  for  his  master  or  for  him- 
self has  never  been  ascertained. 

Another  example  is  still  more  typical.  There  ex- 
isted in  Petrograd  a  German  who  had  lived  there  for 
years,  and  who  had  acquired  considerable  property, 
among  other  things  several  houses  in  Petrograd, 
bringing  him  a  large  income.  Very  soon  after  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  the  properties  belong  ng  to 
the  enemy  were  sequestrated,  and  German  subjects 
sent  away  from  the  capital  to  live  out  the  war  in  some 
northern  government.  The  same  fate  overtook  our 
friend.  But  he  was  a  man  of  resources,  and  he 
immediately  proceeded  to  pay  a  visit  to  Mr.  Manas- 
sevitsch-Maniuloff.  The  latter  was  about  the  last 
man  capable  of  allowing  such  a  wonderful  chance  to 
escape  him.  How  he  managed  he  did  not  say,  and  the 
German  never  cared  to  learn,  but  he  was  allowed  not 
only  to  remain  in  Petrograd,  but  also  to  sell  his  houses 
to  a  personage  occupying  such  a  very  important  ad- 
ministrative position  that  nc  one  cared  or  dared  to  in- 
quire of  him  whether  he  paid  into  the  bank,  as  he  ought 
to  have  done,  the  price  of  his  acquisitions,  or  whether 
he  gave  it  in  the  shape  of  a  cheque  on  a  foreign  bank 
to  the  seller.  And  to  crown  the  whole  matter,  the 
German  in  question  was  allowed  to  leave  Russia  with 
all  due  honours,  and  received  the  position  of  official 
buyer  of  different  military  goods  for  the  Russian 
government  in  Scandinavia.     He  soon  managed  to 


Rasputin  131 

indemnify  himself  to  the  full  for  the  loss  he  had  in- 
curred in  parting  from  his  property  for  a  mere  song, 
and  in  paying  the  three  hundred  thousand  rubles  com- 
mission which  Mr.  Manassevitsch-ManiulofF  and  Ras- 
putin had  together  obtained  from  him. 

Such  things  were  of  daily  occurrence,  known  to  the 
general  public,  and  of  course  commented  upon  in 
terms  which  were  anything  but  favourable  to  the 
"Prophet."  The  latter,  however,  did  not  mind  and 
seemed  absolutely  convinced  of  immunity  in  regard 
to  the  different  transactions  in  which  he  indulged  and 
which  increased  in  importance  every  day.  He  began 
to  give  his  special  attention  to  the  interesting  matter 
of  army  contracts,  and  there  he  found  a  very  rich  field 
to  explore.  All  the  different  agents  and  intermedia- 
ries who  constituted  such  a  notable  element  in  Petro- 
grad  crowded  around  him,  offering  him  their  services, 
or  imploring  his  help  in  all  kinds  of  shady  business, 
out  of  which  no  one  with  the  exception  of  Rasputin 
himself  got  a  single  penny.  Thanks  to  him,  bad  car- 
tridges were  delivered  to  the  army;  rotten  meat,  or 
meat  at  a  fabulous  price,  was  sold  for  its  wants,  and 
not  only  sold  once,  but  several  times  over.  No  mat- 
ter how  strange  this  last  assertion  may  sound,  it  is 
absolutely  true.  If  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  people 
were  afraid  to  indulge  in  that  kind  of  sport,  they  be- 
came adepts  at  it  later  on,  and  the  only  art  which 
was  practised  in  regard  to  it  consisted  in  bribing  an 
official  not  to  put  the  Government  stamp  on  the  goods 
which  were  delivered  to  the  Red  Cross  or  to  the  Com- 
missariat Department,  an  omission  which  allowed 
them  to  be  returned  to  those  who  had  already  once 


132  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

disposed  of  them,  and  thus  become  the  object  of  a 
new  transaction,  perhaps  even  more  profitable  than 
the  first. 

In  regard  to  important  matters,  Rasputin  did  not 
disdain  occasionally  to  play  the  spy.  I  remember  a 
curious  instance  which  during  the  first  five  or  six 
weeks  of  the  war  greatly  amused  those  who  became 
aware  of  it.  The  whole  incident  is  most  characteristic 
of  the  business  methods  then  in  vogue  in  Russia,  which 
are  at  present  dying  out  fast,  thanks  to  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  English  and  French  authorities  with  the 
Russians  in  all  questions  connected  with  army  con- 
tracts. 

When  war  was  declared  the  military  administra- 
tion proceeded  to  requisition  numerous  things  which 
it  required  in  the  way  of  war  material.  Among  others 
were  sand  bags  for  the  trenches.  Now  there  happened 
to  be  a  Jew  in  Petrograd  who  had  about  50,000  of 
them.  He  did  not  care  to  declare  them  as  he  ought 
to  have  done,  knowing  very  well  that  he  was  not  in 
a  position  to  obtain  from  the  Conmiissariat  Depart- 
ment the  price  which  he  wanted.  He  therefore  sold 
them  to  another  Jew,  who  gave  him  a  certain  sum  on 
account,  stipulating  that  he  would  take  the  delivery 
of  the  goods  in  the  course  of  the  next  week  or  so. 
But  in  the  meanwhile  prices  went  down,  and  the  un- 
lucky buyer  found  that  he  had  indeed  made  about  as 
bad  a  bargain  as  possible.  While  he  was  thus  lament- 
ing his  bad  luck,  he  happened  to  meet  one  of  the 
secretaries  of  Rasputin  to  whom  he  related  his  mis- 
fortune. 

"Is  this  troubling  you?"  exclaimed  the  latter.  "This 


Rasputin  133 

is  nothing,  and  we  shall  soon  set  it  all  right."  He  took 
him  to  the  "Prophet,"  where  the  trio  came  to  the  fol- 
lowing an-angement:  The  Jew  was  to  go  forthwith 
to  the  Commissariat  Department  and  declare  that 
he  had  so  many  thousand  sand  bags  to  sell.  Ras- 
putin was  to  speak  in  his  favour  and  to  do  his  best 
to  obtain  the  highest  prices  possible.  Rasputin's  sec- 
retary proceeded  then  to  denounce  the  first  Jew,  who 
was  the  real  owner  of  the  bags,  as  having  neglected 
to  declare  their  existence.  Immediately  a  requisition 
was  made  in  the  latter's  store,  where  the  bags  of  course 
were  found.  Then  the  Jew  who  had  given  an  account 
of  them  interfered,  and  said  that  they  were  his  prop- 
erty, and  that  he  had  fulfilled  all  the  formalities  re- 
quired by  the  law  in  regard  to  them.  He  forthwith 
proceeded  to  take  possession  of  the  bags,  laughing 
in  the  face  of  their  real  owner  whom  he  defied  to 
claim  the  balance  still  due  to  him,  well  knowing  that 
the  unfortunate  victim  could  do  nothing,  because  if 
he  had  tried  to  complain  he  would  inevitably  have 
been  condemned  to  pay  a  heavy  fine  and  to  be  im- 
prisoned. 

Then  again  there  was  a  story  of  railway  trucks  in 
which  the  "Prophet"  also  was  mixed  up  in  some  un- 
accountable way.  Some  Jews,  protected  no  one 
knows  to  this  day  by  whom  or  in  what  way,  had  ob- 
tained some  contracts  from  the  Government  for  dif- 
ferent goods  which  were  to  be  delivered  to  the  army, 
together  with  the  necessary  numbers  of  railway  trucks 
to  carry  them  to  the  front.  They  immediately  pro- 
ceeded to  sell  these  contracts  at  a  fair  price,  though 
not  an  exaggerated  one,  to  other  people,  but  with  the 


134  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

clause  that  these  other  people  were  to  take  upon  them- 
selves the  care  of  forwarding  the  goods  to  their  des- 
tination. And  they  kept  for  their  own  use  and  benefit 
the  trucks  which  had  been  allotted  to  them,  hiring 
them  afterward  to  whoever  wanted  to  have  them  for 
as  much  money  as  they  could  get.  One  Jew,  a  certain 
Mr.  Bernstein,  thus  obtained  control  over  more  than 
500  trucks,  out  of  which  he  drew  during  six  months 
an  income  amounting  to  something  like  250,000  rubles 
a  month.  And  this  occurred  while  everybody  was 
complaining  of  the  impossibility  of  forwarding  any- 
thing anywhere,  owing  to  the  total  lack  of  railway 
material.  It  is  related  that  in  this  little  business,  too, 
Rasputin  was  mixed  up,  and  that  without  him  the 
military  contracts  which  the  heroes  of  the  anecdote  I 
have  just  related  obtained  would  never  have  been 
granted. 

These  stories,  scandalous  though  they  were,  are 
well  known.  There  were  others  of  which  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  speak  in  a  language  fit  for  a  drawing  room. 
Such,  for  instance,  is  the  sad  case  of  a  young  girl,  the 
daughter  of  a  rich  merchant  in  Moscow,  who  travelled 
all  the  way  to  Petrograd,  to  see  the  "Prophet"  and 
implore  his  prayers  for  her  fiance  who  was  at  the 
front.  Rasputin  received  her,  and  forthwith  pro- 
ceeded to  tell  her  that  the  young  man  for  whom  she 
felt  so  anxious  was  doomed  and  could  be  saved  only 
if  she  consented  to  unite  herself  with  him,  Rasputin, 
and  to  be  cleansed  by  him  of  all  her  sins.  The  poor 
child,  frightened  out  of  her  wits  and  fascinated  by  the 
terror  which  the  dreadful  creature  inspired  in  his  vic- 
tims, allowed  him  to  do  what  he  liked  with  her.    But 


Rasputin  135 

she  afterward  became  mad,  on  hearing  that  in  spite 
of  her  sacrifices  her  lover  had  fallen  at  Tannenburg, 
during  the  terrible  battle  which  took  place  in  that 
locality. 

All  these  things  were  whispered  from  ear  to  ear 
with  horror  and  disgust,  but  they  did  not  harm  in 
the  least  the  impostor  who  was  pursuing  his  career 
of  wickedness,  deceit  and  crime.  As  time  went  on,  he 
got  more  and  more  insolent,  more  and  more  overbear- 
ing, so  that  at  last  even  some  of  his  former  protectors 
found  that  he  was  going  rather  too  far,  and  he  was  no 
longer  received  at  Tsarskoie  Selo  with  the  same  kind- 
ness that  had  been  shown  to  him  previously. 

He  did  not  care  for  this,  nor  did  those  with  whom 
he  was  working  care  either.  They  were  all  unscrupu- 
lous, daring  people,  determined  to  make  hay  while 
the  sun  was  shining,  and  careless  as  to  what  others 
might  think  of  them.  Count  Witte,  who  saw  further 
and  understood  better  than  most  of  the  public  the 
hopeless  muddle  into  which  the  administration  had 
fallen,  felt  sure  that  sooner  or  later  the  country  would 
demand  an  explanation  for  the  many  mistakes  and 
errors  which  had  been  committed,  and  that  a  change  in 
the  Government  was  bound  to  take  place.  He  fully 
meant  this  change  to  affect  his  own  prospects  in  so 
far  that  it  would  put  him  again  at  the  head  of  affairs, 
and  he  was  helping  Rasputin  as  hard  and  as  well  as 
he  could  to  discredit  the  Cabinet  then  in  power,  and 
to  show  it  up  as  being  thoroughly  incapable  of  man- 
aging the  country  at  this  moment  of  grave  crisis. 

It  was  about  that  time  that  the  Massayedoff  inci- 
dent took  place,  about  which  such  a  lot  has  been  writ- 


136  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ten,  and  which  deserves  a  passing  mention  in  this  rec- 
ord. Massayedoif  was  a  colonel  who  had  already 
given  some  reasons  to  be  talked  about  for  misdeeds 
of  a  more  or  less  grave  nature.  General  Rennen- 
kampf,  when  he  had  received  the  command  of  the 
Kovno  Army  Corps,  had  energetically  protested 
against  his  appointment  on  his  staff,  but  headquarters 
ignored  his  representations  and  maintained  the  colonel 
in  his  functions. 

After  the  disaster  of  Tannenberg  and  the  loss  of 
two  Russian  army  corps  in  the  swamps  of  the  Mazu- 
rian  region,  it  was  discovered  that  some  spying  of  a 
grave  nature  had  been  going  on  and  that  the  principal 
spy  was  Colonel  MassayedofF,  who  had  kept  the 
enemy  informed  of  the  movements  of  the  Russian 
troops.  He  was  tried  and  condemned  to  death,  which 
sentence  was  duly  executed.  Together  with  him  sev- 
eral individuals  compromised  in  the  same  affair,  most- 
ly Jews  connected  with  questions  of  army  purveyance, 
were  also  hanged.  Among  these  last  was  a  man  called 
Friedmann,  who  had  been  one  of  the  parasites  who 
were  perpetually  crowding  around  Rasputin.  The 
latter,  however,  when  asked  to  interfere  in  his  favour 
had  refused  to  do  so,  but  whether  this  was  due  to  the 
desire  to  get  rid  of  a  compromising  accomplice  or  the 
dread  of  being  mixed  up  himself  in  a  dangerous  story, 
it  is  difficult  to  say  or  to  guess.  But  others  talked, 
if  the  "Prophet"  himself  remained  silent,  and  soon  it 
began  to  be  whispered  that  he  was  also,  if  not  exactly 
a  German  agent,  at  least  a  partisan  of  a  separate 
peace  with  Germany. 

There  certainly  exist  indications  that  such  was  the 


Rasputin  137 

case.  In  spite  of  the  strong  character  upon  which 
Rasputin  prided  himself,  it  is  hardly  possible  that  he 
could  have  escaped  the  influence  of  the  people  who 
were  constantly  hanging  about  him,  and  who  were  all 
partial  to  Germany.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
they  hoped,  if  the  latter  Power  triumphed  and  van- 
quished the  Russians,  to  obtain  from  the  German 
Government  substantial  rewards  for  their  fidelity,  in 
the  shape  of  some  kind  of  army  contracts,  for  the 
time  that  the  Prussian  troops  remained  in  occupation 
of  some  Russian  provinces.  It  is  quite  remarkable 
that  while  the  nation  in  general  was  all  for  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  war,  and  would  have  considered  it  a 
shame  to  listen  to  peace  proposals  without  consent  of 
its  Allies,  commercial  and  industrial  people  were  al- 
ways talking  about  peace  to  whomever  would  listen. 
And  Rasputin  had  now  more  to  do  with  that  class  of 
individuals  than  with  the  nation. 

It  was  at  that  time  that  he  suddenly  imagined  him- 
self to  be  endowed  with  perspicacity  in  regard  to  mili- 
tary matters,  and  that  he  attempted  to  criticise  the 
operations  at  the  front,  and  especially  the  leadership 
of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  whom  he  hated  with  all 
the  ferocity  for  which  his  character  had  become  fam- 
ous. He  was  known  to  be  absolutely  without  any 
mercy  for  those  whom  he  disliked.  He  disliked  none 
more  than  the  Grand  Duke,  who  had,  on  one  occa- 
sion when  the  "Prophet"  had  tried  to  discuss  with 
him  the  conduct  of  the  campaign  and  even  volun- 
teered to  arrive  at  headquarters,  declared  that  if  he 
ever  ventured  to  put  in  an  appearance  there  he  would 
have  him  hanged  immediately  from  the  first  tree  he 


138  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

could  find.  Rasputin  was  prudent,  and  moreover  he 
knew  that  Nicolas  Nicolaievitsch  was  a  man  who  al- 
ways kept  his  word,  so  he  thought  it  wise  to  leave  a 
wide  berth  between  him  and  the  irascible  commander- 
in-chief.  But  he  applied  himself  with  considerable 
perseverance  to  undermine  the  position  of  the  latter, 
and  especially  to  render  him  unpopular  among  the 
people,  accusing  him  openly  of  mismanagement  in  re- 
gard to  military  matters  and  of  want  of  foresight  in 
his  strategical  dispositions. 

In  the  beginning  this  did  not  succeed,  partly  be- 
cause the  staff  did  not  allow  any  news  of  importance 
to  leak  out  from  the  front  and  partly  because  the 
country  believed  so  firmly  in  a  victory  over  the  Prus- 
sians that  it  was  very  hard  to  shake  its  confidence  in 
the  Grand  Duke's  abilities.  The  early  successes  of 
the  first  Galician  campaign  had  strengthened  this  con-< 
fidence,  and  no  one  in  Petrograd  during  the  first 
months  of  the  year  1915  ever  gave  a  thought  to  the 
possibility  of  our  troops  being  compelled  to  retreat 
before  the  enemy,  and  no  one  foresaw  the  fall  of  War- 
saw and  of  the  other  fortresses  on  the  western  fron- 
tier. Rasputin,  however,  knew  more  than  the  public 
at  large.  He  had  his  spies  everywhere,  who  faithfully 
reported  to  him  everything  that  was  occurring  in  the 
army.  He  was  well  aware  that  the  army  was  suffer- 
ing from  an  almost  complete  lack  of  ammunition,  and 
that  it  would  never  be  able  to  hold  against  any  offen- 
sive combined  with  artillery  attacks  on  the  part  of  the 
enemy.  This  knowledge,  which  he  carefully  refrained 
from  sharing  with  any  one,  enabled  him  to  indulge  in 
prophesies  of  a  more  or  less  tragic  nature,  the  sense  of 


Rasputin  139 

which  was  that  God  was  punishing  Russia  for  its  sins, 
and  that  with  an  unbehever  like  the  commander-in- 
chief  at  the  head  of  its  armies  it  was  surely  marching 
towards  a  defeat  which  would  be  sent  by  God  as  a 
warning  never  to  forget  the  paths  of  Providence,  and 
never  to  disdain  the  advice  of  the  one  prophet  that 
He  had  sent  in  His  mercy  to  save  Russia  from  all  the 
calamities  which  were  threatening  her. 

He  used  to  speak  in  that  way  everywhere  and  to 
everybody,  even  at  Tsarskoie  Selo,  not  to  the  Em- 
peror and  Empress,  of  course,  but  to  all  those  persons 
surrounding  them  who  were  favourably  inclined 
toward  himself  and  likely  to  spread  abroad  the 
prophecies  which  he  kept  pouring  into  their  ears. 

But,  in  spite  of  all  this,  he  was  not  quite  so  suc- 
cessful as  he  had  hoped,  because  owing  to  the  igno- 
rance which  prevailed  as  to  the  real  state  of  things  in 
the  army,  few  people  believed  him,  and  fewer  still 
would  own  that  they  did  so.  Once  more  Rasputin's 
star  was  beginning  to  wane,  and  even  the  Empress  be- 
gan to  think  him  very  wearisome  with  his  perpetual 
forebodings  concerning  misfortunes  which  seemed  to 
be  far  away  from  the  limits  of  possibility. 

Then  suddenly  things  changed.  Mackensen  began 
his  march  forward,  and  the  Grand  Duke,  with  his 
heart  full  of  rage  and  despaii',  was  compelled,  owing 
to  the  mistakes,  the  negligence  and  the  crimes  of 
others,  to  make  the  best  out  of  a  very  bad  job,  and  to 
try  at  least  to  save  the  army  confided  to  his  care. 
Even  if  he  had  to  sacrifice  towns  and  fortresses,  he 
had  declared  he  would  never,  and  under  no  conditions 
whatever,  surrender  to  the  enemy.    The  great  retreat 


140  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

began,  and  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  glorious 
pages  in  the  history  of  Russian  warfare,  a  deed  the 
gallantry  of  which  will  live  in  the  military  annals  of 
the  world  as  almost  as  grand  a  one  as  the  famous  re- 
treat of  Xenophon  and  his  10,000  warriors.  Russia 
appreciated  its  importance ;  the  world  admired  it ;  the 
Czar,  though  he  may  have  shed  bitter  tears  over  its 
necessity,  felt  grateful  for  the  talent  which  was  dis- 
played in  such  a  terrible  emergency;  but  people  in 
Petrograd  began  looking  for  those  upon  whom  they 
could  fix  the  responsibility  for  this  awful  disappoint- 
ment which  had  overtaken  them.  This  was  the  mo- 
ment for  which  Rasputin  had  been  waiting  with  the 
patience  of  the  serpent  watching  for  its  prey,  and  of 
which  he  hastened  to  make  use  with  the  infernal  cun- 
ning he  usually  displayed  in  all  the  evil  deeds  with 
which  he  was  familiar. 

The  secret  police  agents,  who  were  working  with 
him,  and  thanks  to  whom  he  had  been  enabled  to  make 
the  enormous  profits  that  had  added  so  many  millions 
to  his  fortune  since  the  war  had  started,  began  to 
spread  the  rumour  that  the  Grand  Duke  was  plot- 
ting against  the  Czar,  and  wanted  to  usurp  the  lat- 
ter's  throne  and  crown,  out  of  fear  of  being  called 
upon  to  render  an  account  of  his  activity  during  the 
nine  months  of  the  campaign.  Though  it  was  quite 
evident  that  the  responsibility  for  the  lamentable  want 
of  organisation  which  had  culminated  in  the  momen- 
tary defeat  of  the  Russian  troops  lay  upon  the  War 
Office  and  the  Artillery  and  Commissariat  Depart- 
ments, and  though  the  War  Minister,  General  Sou- 
khomlinoff,  had  been  dismissed  in  disgrace  before  be- 


Rasputin  141 

ing  sent  to  the  fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  to 
await  there  his  trial;  though  strenuous  efforts  had 
been  made  to  punish  those  to  whose  carelessness  this 
mass  of  misfortunes  had  been  due,  yet  Rasputin  and 
his  friends  applied  themelves  to  the  task  of  represent- 
ing the  Grand  Duke  as  being  more  guilty  than  any 
one  else,  and  of  having  on  purpose  kept  secret  the  real 
state  of  things,  out  of  fear  that  he  would  be  called 
upon,  if  he  revealed  the  truth,  to  surrender  his  com- 
mand. There  was  not  one  word  of  truth  in  these  ac- 
cusations, because  Nicholas  Nicholaievitsch  had,  on 
the  contrary,  worked  harder  than  any  one  to  repair 
the  blunders  of  others,  and  had  never  shared  the  blind 
confidence  in  victory  which  so  many  people  who  knew 
nothing  about  the  real  condition  of  affairs  professed 
to  nurse.  He  had  done  all  that  it  was  humanly  pos- 
sible to  do,  in  order  to  save  a  situation  which  had  been 
doomed  from  the  first  day  that  it  had  begun  to  de- 
velop. If  he  had  failed,  this  had  been  in  no  way  his 
fault,  but  that  of  circumstances  and  of  fate  which  had 
proved  too  strong  for  him. 

The  public,  however,  thought  differently,  and  Ras- 
putin's numerous  supporters  helped  it  to  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  Grand  Duke  ought  to  be  deprived 
of  his  command  by  some  means  or  other.  This,  how- 
ever, was  not  such  an  easy  thing  to  do,  because  the 
Emperor  had  a  sincere  esteem  and  respect  for  his 
uncle,  and  understood  better  than  all  those  who  criti- 
cised the  latter  the  extent  of  the  difficulties  against 
which  he  had  had  to  fight.  He  refused  to  listen  to 
those  who  tried  to  shake  his  confidence  in  the  com- 
mander-in-chief.   He  might  have  gone  on  for  a  long 


142  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

time  doing  so  had  not  Rasputin  succeeded  in  winning 
over  to  his  point  of  view  several  high  ecclesiastical  dig- 
nitaries, who  took  it  upon  themselves  to  speak  to  the 
Sovereign  of  the  desire  and  wishes  of  the  nation  to 
see  him  assume  himself  the  supreme  command  over 
his  armies.  They  assured  him  that  it  was  quite  cer- 
tain that  the  armies  would  fight  ever  so  much  better 
under  the  personal  leadership  of  their  Czar  than  under 
any  other  commander-in-chief,  no  matter  how  high 
might  be  his  military  reputation,  or  how  elevated 
might  be  his  rank.  This  was  quite  a  new  point  of 
view,  and  Nicholas  II.  had  to  examine  it  with  atten- 
tion, the  more  so  as  the  Empress,  too,  had  been  won 
over  to  the  idea,  and  was  pressing  him  to  give  to  his 
subjects  this  satisfaction  for  which  they  craved. 

The  military  situation  was  then  recognised,  even  by 
the  most  optimistically  inclined  people,  to  be  very 
serious,  and  it  was  generally  felt  that  something  had 
to  be  done  to  excite  the  enthusiasm  of  the  troops, 
which  had  lately  begun  to  wane.  The  assumption  by 
the  Czar  of  the  supreme  command  seemed  to  present 
itself  almost  in  the  light  of  an  absolute  necessity.  Per- 
haps from  some  points  of  view  Rasputin  was  not  so 
very  wrong  to  urge  it,  as  it  most  certainly  produced  a 
salutary  effect  on  the  whole  situation.  But  it  is  to 
be  doubted  whether  the  "Prophet"  had  ever  looked 
at  it  in  that  light.  It  is  far  more  likely  that  his  only 
aim  had  been  the  displacing  of  the  Grand  Duke 
Nicholas,  who  had  begun  to  look  too  closely  into  all 
that  was  going  on  around  Rasputin,  and  to  watch 
the  different  intrigues  in  which  the  latter  was  taking 
part  with  an  attention  that  did  not  promise  anything 


Rasputin  143 

good  for  him,  or  for  the  further  development  of  his 
career  as  an  adventurer. 

When  the  Grand  Duke  had  been  appointed  Viceroy 
of  the  Caucasus,  and  had  left  for  his  new  residence, 
Rasputin  breathed  freely  once  more.  For  one  thing, 
this  incident  had  given  him  a  greater  confidence  in 
his  own  strength  than  he  had  even  possessed  before. 
Now  that  he  had  been  able  to  remove  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  Russian  armies  from  his  post,  it  seemed 
to  him  that  it  would  be  a  relatively  easy  thing  to  push 
forward,  and  to  appoint  to  the  most  important  func- 
tions in  the  State  people  indoctrinated  with  his  view 
and  ready  to  help  him  in  keeping  undisturbed  and 
unchallenged  the  position  into  which  he  had  glided  so 
naturally,  and  as  now  appeared  to  him,  so  simply — a 
position  which  he  was  absolutely  determined  not  to 
lose.  With  a  Prime  Minister  at  his  command,  he 
would  become  the  real  master  of  Russia,  and  the  Czar 
himself  would  be  compelled  to  take  him  into  account, 
a  thing  which  up  to  then  he  had  refused  to  do,  much 
to  the  distress  of  the  "Prophet."  Though  he  repeated 
everywhere,  and  to  whomsoever  wished  to  listen  to 
him,  that  he  could  do  all  he  liked  at  Tsarskoie  Selo,  he 
knew  very  well  in  his  inmost  heart  that  such  was  not 
the  case,  and  that  in  the  Imperial  Palace  Rasputin 
was  nothing  but  Rasputin,  an  ignorant  peasant,  en- 
dowed sometimes  with  gifts  of  second  sight  and  al- 
ways with  religious  fervour,  but  a  peasant  all  the 
same,  with  whom  one  might  pray,  but  whom  one 
would  never  dream  of  appointing  to  any  responsible 
position. 

The  knowledge  that  such  was  the  case,  and  that  his 


144  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

so-called  influence  existed  mostly  in  the  imagination 
of  the  people  who  spoke  about  it,  worried  Rasputin. 
Though  he  dictated  to  ministers  his  will,  though  he 
decided  together  with  them  more  than  one  important 
matter,  yet  he  felt  that  there  was  a  flaw  in  the  edifice 
of  his  fortune,  and  that  this  flaw  consisted  in  the  fact 
that  the  Sovereign  did  not  share  the  feeling  of  rever- 
ence with  which  the  Russian  nation,  as  the  "Prophet" 
flattered  himself  was  the  case,  experienced  for  his  per- 
son and  for  his  teachings.  This  was  what  tormented 
him,  and  he  spent  the  whole  time  thinking  how  it 
might  become  possible  to  put  in  the  place  of  Mr. 
Goremykine  another  Prime  Minister  more  ready  to 
enter  into  his  views,  and  to  follow  his  advice  in  regard 
to  matters  of  state.  This  the  then  President  of  Coun- 
cil, in  spite  of  his  deference  for  Rasputin,  had  refused 
to  do,  preferring  to  discuss  the  afl'airs  of  the  Govern- 
ment alone  with  the  Emperor,  without  any  interfer- 
ence of  the  former. 

Rasputin  spoke  of  his  wishes  to  some  of  his  confi- 
dants, and  even  mentioned  the  subject  to  several  of 
the  high-born  ladies  who  formed  the  great  bulk  of  his 
"clientele."  These  entered  into  his  views  with  alac- 
rity, the  more  so  as  he  developed  them  in  a  pathetic 
tone,  which  appealed  to  their  feelings  of  "patriotism." 
They  would  have  given  much  to  be  able  to  help  him, 
but  they  did  not  very  well  know  how  this  was  to  be 
done.  This  was  due  to  the  sad  fact  that  there  seemed 
to  be  no  one  available.  The  unexpected  and  sudden 
death  of  Count  .Witte,  which  had  occurred  in  the 
meanwhile,  removed  the  only  person  whom  they  could 
suggest  as  a  candidate  for  the  functions  of  Prime 


Rasputin  145 

Minister.  All  those  whose  names  might  have  been 
mentioned  as  fit  individuals  for  the  post,  such  as  Mr. 
Krivoscheine  for  instance,  were  people  who  would, 
with  a  greater  energy  even  than  Mr.  Goremykine  had 
ever  displayed,  oppose  any  interference  of  Rasputin 
into  the  conduct  of  the  Government.  Their  perplex- 
ity might  have  lasted  a  long  time  if  Providence,  in 
the  shape  of  Mr.  Manassevitsch-Maniuloff,  had  not 
interfered  in  their  favour,  and  had  the  latter  not  sug- 
gested the  advisability  of  entering  into  negotiations 
with  Mr.  Sturmer. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Mr.  Sturmer  was  not  a  novice  in  politics  and  he 
was  known  to  be  a  reactionary  of  the  deepest  dye. 
It  is  likely  that  even  Rasputin's  friends  would  never 
have  given  a  thought  to  the  possibility  of  his  becom- 
ing Prime  Minister  if  Count  Witte  had  still  been  in 
the  land  of  the  living.  With  the  latter's  death  the  sort 
of  coalition  or  secret  society  that  had  hoped  through 
the  occult  influence  of  the  "Prophet"  to  rise  to  power 
had  lost  its  best  head.  There  was  no  one  to  take  his 
place,  officially  at  least,  because  with  the  best  will  in 
the  world  it  was  impossible  to  suggest  as  a  candidate 
for  a  ministerial  portfolio  Mr.  Manassevitsch-Maniu- 
loif .  The  past  record  of  this  man  did  not  permit  him 
to  play  any  role  but  that  of  the  Pere  Joseph  of  a 
minister  who  was  not  a  Richelieu.  And  though  the 
secret  position  of  principal  adviser  to  a  personage  of 
the  importance  of  Rasputin  had  its  advantages,  it 
nevertheless  precluded  the  possibility  of  becoming  a 
candidate  for  the  place  of  a  statesman. 

The  next  best  thing,  therefore,  was  to  find  some  one 
who  would  be  willing  to  become  consciously  what  the 
"Prophet"  was  unconsciously,  the  instrument  of  the 
vile  crew  whose  ambition  was  to  make  money  by  all 
means  out  of  the  teiTible  situation  into  which  the 
country  was  plunged.  These  unscrupulous  people  all 
felt  that  they  would  never  again  in  the  whole  course 

146 


Rasputin  147 

of  their  life  have  another  such  opportunity  of  becom- 
ing rich  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice,  and  they  were 
not  the  kind  of  people  to  allow  it  to  escape  them. 
Every  effort  was  therefore  put  forward  to  bring  Mr. 
Sturmer  to  the  notice  of  the  Emperor,  and  to  the  at- 
tention of  all  those  capable  of  suggesting  to  the  latter 
the  choice  of  this  functionary  to  replace  Mr.  Goremy- 
kine,  who  had  openly  declared  that  he  could  not  any 
longer  go  on  fighting  against  the  subterranean  forces 
which  were  slowly  but  surely  working  against  him, 
and  making  his  position  more  unbearable  every  day. 
The  candidate  who  would  have  been  the  most  wel- 
come to  public  opinion  was  Mr.  Krivoscheine,  but  he 
was  the  last  man  whom  Rasputin's  friends  would  have 
cared  to  put  forward. 

On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Sturmer,  for  personal  rea- 
sons into  which  it  is  useless  to  enter  here,  when  ap- 
proached by  Manassevitsch-Maniuloff,  had  not  hesi- 
tated a  single  moment  in  promising  to  indorse  the 
purposes  of  the  small  gi'oup  of  persons  who  had  made 
up  their  minds  to  become  the  real  rulers  of  the  State. 
As  soon  as  he  had  declared  his  willingness  to  join  with 
them  in  the  future  an  energetic  campaign  was  started 
in  his  favour,  not  in  the  press  nor  in  the  Duma,  nor 
even  among  the  public,  but  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  Sovereign,  a  campaign  in  which  some  of  the 
highest  authorities  in  the  Greek  Church  were  enrolled, 
and  in  which  the  Empress  herself  was  persuaded  by 
some  of  her  personal  friends  to  take  part.  The  ex- 
pected then  occurred.  The  Czar  was  finally  persuad- 
ed that  in  ^Ir.  Sturmer  he  would  find  a  faithful  ser- 
vant, which  in  a  certain  sense  he  did,  and  also  a  min- 


148  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ister  determined  to  govern  according  to  the  old  prin- 
ciples of  autocracy  with  an  utter  disregard  for  the 
liberal  parties,  as  well  as  for  the  Duma.  The  Duma 
had  not  spared  the  Government  during  the  whole 
summer,  and  its  activity  had  been  viewed  with  dismay 
by  certain  members.  Yet  the  country  was  glad  to 
find  that  at  last  there  existed  among  its  representa- 
tives men  courageous  enough  to  say  what  they 
thought,  and  to  try  to  save  Russia  from  the  abyss  into 
which  it  was  felt  that  she  was  falling  through  the  in- 
fluence not  so  much  of  Rasputin  himself  as  of  those 
who  surrounded  him  and  who  used  him  for  their  own 
ends. 

This  campaign  succeeded  and  Mr.  Sturmer  was  ap- 
pointed. His  selection  caused  an  outcry  of  indigna- 
tion throughout  the  whole  country,  and  distressed  its 
best  friends  for  more  than  one  reason.  But  even 
among  the  functionaries  of  the  Ministry,  which  had 
to  accept  him  as  its  chief,  there  were  found  some  re- 
bellious spirits,  among  whom  was  the  then  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  Mr.  ChvostofF,  who  made  up  their 
minds  that  it  was  at  last  high  time  to  get  rid  of  Ras- 
putin in  some  manner  or  other.  He  was  also  a  reac- 
tionary, like  Mr.  Sturmer,  and  even  a  furious  one. 
AVhen  he  was  still  a  deputy  in  the  Duma  he  had  been 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  faction  of  the  right  and  be- 
fore that  time  had  made  for  himself  the  reputation 
of  being  an  ultraconservative  in  all  the  different  ad- 
ministrative posts  which  he  had  occupied.  Among 
others,  he  had  been  Governor  at  Nijni  Novgorod 
for  a  short  period.  He  belonged  to  the  number  of 
persons  who  held  the  opinion  that  Rasputin  ought  to 


Rasputin  149 

he  removed.  But  whether  he  was  really  a  party  to 
the  extraordinary  story  I  am  going  to  relate  is  a  mat- 
ter about  which  I  shall  abstain  from  expressing  an 
opinion. 

The  fact  is  that  about  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1916  people  were  startled  by  hearing  of  a  new  con- 
spiracy against  Rasputin,  in  which  it  was  rumoured 
that  the  IMinister  of  the  Interior  himself  was  a  party. 
Things  stood  thus:  A  secret  agent  of  the  Russian 
police  called  Rgevsky,  a  man  about  as  unscrupulous 
as  Manassevitsch-ISIaniuloff  but  not  so  clever,  who 
had  already  figured  more  than  once  in  occasions  when 
the  need  for  a  provocative  agent  had  been  felt,  ar- 
rived in  Christiania,  in  Norway,  where  the  unfrocked 
monk  Illiodore  was  living,  and  sought  him  out.  His 
journey  had  been  undertaken  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  chief  of  the  secret  police,  Mr.  Bieletsky,  but  on 
the  express  orders  of  Mr.  Chvostoff,  the  Minister  of 
the  Interior.  Bieletsky,  however,  had  suspected  that 
some  underhand  game  was  going  on,  and  had  caused 
Rgevsky  to  be  watched.  When  the  latter  had  crossed 
the  frontier  at  Torneo,  he  had  been  thoroughly 
searched  and  examined  by  special  orders  received  from 
Petrograd,  without,  however,  anything  suspicious  be- 
ing found  on  him.  When  he  was  questioned  as  to  the 
reasons  for  his  journey  abroad  he  had,  in  order  to  be 
allowed  to  proceed,  to  own  that  it  was  undertaken  by 
command  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior. 

On  his  return  from  abroad  Rgevsky  was  at  once 
arrested  under  the  pretext  of  having  blackmailed  an- 
other police  agent.  Furious  at  what  he  considered  to 
have  been  a  breach  of  faith,  he  contrived  to  apprise 


150  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Rasputin  of  the  position  in  which  he  found  himself 
placed,  and  revealed  to  him  that  the  object  of  his  mis- 
sion had  been  to  see  and  speak  with  Illiodore  to  try 
to  persuade  the  latter  to  organise  a  conspiracy  with 
the  help  of  the  many  followers  he  still  had  in  Russia. 
The  object  of  this  plot  was  to  be  the  murder  of  the 
"Prophet."  Illiodore  had  been  considered  ever  since 
his  quarrel  with  Rasputin  one  of  the  latter's  worst 
enemies,  and  it  was  felt  that  he  would  enter  with  alac- 
rity into  the  plot  which  it  was  proposed  to  engineer. 
But  to  the  stupefaction  of  the  persons  who  had  thus 
applied  to  him  in  the  hope  of  finding  in  him  the  in- 
strument which  they  required,  Illiodore  went  over  to 
the  enemy.  On  the  advice  of  Rgevsky  he  telegraphed 
to  Rasputin,  asking  the  latter  to  send  some  one  whom 
he  could  trust  to  Norway,  and  telling  him  that  he 
would  deliver  into  the  hands  of  that  person  the  proofs 
of  the  plot  that  was  being  hatched  against  his,  Ras- 
putin's, life. 

Mr.  Chvostoff ,  when  taken  to  task  for  the  affair, 
of  course,  denied  it  in  its  entirety.  He  declared  that 
he  had  given  quite  different  instructions  to  Rgevsky, 
and  that  he  had  sent  the  policeman  to  Norway  to  buy 
the  memoirs  of  Illiodore,  which  he  had  heard  the  lat- 
ter was  about  to  publish  abroad.  But  at  the  same  time 
Chvostoff  made  no  secret  of  his  feelings  of  repug- 
nance to  Rasputin,  and  declared  that  he  considered 
him  a  most  dangerous  and  mischievous  man,  whose 
presence  at  Petrograd  was  exceedingly  harmful  for 
the  prestige  of  the  dynasty,  as  well  as  for  the  welfare 
of  the  State  in  the  grave  circumstances  in  which  the 
country  was  finding  itself  placed 


Rasputin  151 

According  to  Mr.  Chvostoff,  Rasputin  was  sur- 
rounded with  individuals  of  a  most  suspicious  char- 
acter, who  spent  their  time  in  concocting  any  amount 
of  shady  affairs  and  transactions,  and  who  had  or- 
ganised a  regular  plundering  of  the  public  exchequer. 
He  did  not  dare  to  do  anything  directly  against  the 
"Prophet,"  but  he  tried  to  get  at  him  through  the  ar- 
rest of  several  of  his  adepts  and  friends.  He  caused 
the  houses  of  a  considerable  nmnber  of  these  to  be 
thoroughly  searched  for  compromising  documents. 
Among  other  places  searched  was  the  flat  of  a  Mr. 
Dobrovolsky,  who  held  the  position  of  a  school  in- 
spector. This  search  gave  abundant  evidence  by 
which  he  might  have  been  incriminated  in  more  than 
one  dirty  transaction.  But  he  was  not  immediately 
arrested  and  contrived  to  make  his  escape.  Another 
of  the  Rasj^utin  crew,  a  certain  Simanovitsch,  was  ar- 
rested at  the  very  moment  when  he  returned  to  his 
home  in  the  private  automobile  of  Mr.  Sturmer,  one 
of  whose  familiar  friends  he  happened  to  be. 

At  the  request  of  the  "Prophet"  an  inquest  into  the 
denunciation  of  Rgevsky  was  ordered  by  Mr.  Stur- 
mer, and  a  certain  Mr.  Gourland,  whose  name  had 
often  been  mentioned  as  that  of  a  rising  secret  agent, 
was  entrusted  with  it.  But  Manassevitsch-Maniuloff 
contrived  to  oust  him  and  to  get  himself  appointed  in 
his  place.  At  the  same  time  it  was  decided  to  send 
some  one  to  Norway  to  interview  Illiodore,  ^nd  to  try 
thus  to  come  to  the  bottom  of  the  whole  business.  A 
certain  General  Spiridovitsch,  who  had  already  more 
than  once  been  entrusted  with  missions  of  a  delicate 
character  which  he  had  always  accomplished  to  the 


152  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

satisfaction  of  those  who  had  employed  him,  was  se- 
lected for  the  task.  The  General  had  several  inter- 
views with  Mr.  Chvostoff,  but  they  all  came  to  noth- 
ing, and  he  did  not  go  abroad  as  it  had  been  rumoured 
that  he  would  do.  At  last  both  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  and  the  chief  of  the  secret  police,  Mr.  Bielet- 
sky,  had  to  resign  their  functions,  and  Rasputin  found 
himself  delivered  from  two  of  his  most  dangerous 
enemies. 

The  next  question  which  arose  was  that  of  the  ap- 
pointment of  ChvostoiF's  successor.  The  post  which 
he  had  vacated  was  such  a  difficult  and  responsible 
one  that  several  persons  who  were  sounded  as  to  their 
readiness  to  accept  it  refused  the  offer  in  a  most  cate- 
gorical manner.  The  story  which  I  have  just  related 
died  at  last  a  natural  death.  Rgevsky  disappeared,  no 
one  knew  where,  but  the  difficulties  out  of  which  it 
had  arisen  were  still  there.  They  could  hardly  be 
set  aside  by  any  minister,  unless  some  radical  meas- 
ures were  adopted,  such  as  the  exile  of  Rasputin,  a 
thing  which  no  one  dared  to  propose,  and  which  no 
one  would  have  dared  to  enforce  even  if  some  one 
else  had  proposed  it. 

After  the  resignation,  or  rather  the  dismissal,  of 
Mr.  Chvostoff,  his  post  was  finally  offered,  by  the 
advice  of  Rasputin  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Manasse- 
vitsch-Maniuloff,  to  ]Mr.  Protopopoff,  a  rich  land- 
owner of  the  Government  of  Simbirsk,  who  for  some 
time  had  occupied  the  position  of  vice  president  of  the 
Duma  of  the  Empire. 

Just  before  his  appointment  to  what  is  the  most  im- 
portant and  responsible  function  in  the  whole  Rus- 


Rasputin  153 

sian  Empire,  there  was  much  talk  of  an  interview 
which  he  had  had  at  Stockholm  with  Mr.  Warberg,  a 
representative  of  the  German  Government,  dm'ing 
which  the  conditions  at  which  a  separate  peace  might 
come  to  be  concluded  between  Russia  and  the  Central 
Empires  had  been  discussed.  Later  on,  when  this 
meeting,  vrhich  had  been  arranged  through  the  good 
offices  of  a  Jew,  Mr.  Maliniak,  became  the  subject 
of  general  knowledge  in  Stockholm,  and  details 
concerning  it  had  found  their  way  into  the  Russian 
press,  Mr.  Protopopoff  was  violently  attacked  by  the 
liberal  parties  in  the  Duma,  which  accused  him  of 
treason,  and  refused  even  to  listen  to  the  clumsy  ex- 
planations which  he  attempted  to  give  of  the  affair. 

It  was  then  generally  believed  that  the  political  ca- 
reer of  this  gentleman  was  at  an  end,  and  it  was  as- 
sumed that  he  would  have  to  resign  his  vice  presi- 
dency in  the  House.  Certainly  no  one  ever  thought 
that  he  would  suddenly  develop  into  a  minister.  And 
yet,  this  is  the  very  thing  which  happened,  thanks  to 
the  Rasputin  crew,  which  persuaded  Mr.  Sturmer  to 
present  Mr.  Protopopoff  to  the  Emperor  as  the  best 
candidate  for  the  place  vacated  by  Mr.  ChvostofF.  In 
the  meanwhile,  Manassevitsch-Maniuloff,  who  had 
been  the  moving  spirit  in  this  whole  intrigue,  had  been 
appointed  private  secretary  to  Mr.  Sturmer,  and  at 
his  instigation  there  began  dissipation  of  public  funds 
such  as  Russia  had  never  seen  before,  and  such  as,  let 
us  hope,  she  will  never  see  again. 

There  are  many  more  things  than  I  could  possibly 
relate  in  regard  to  the  incidents  of  yvhich  I  have  given 
the  outline  here,  but  these  could  "hardly  be  published 


154  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

at  present.  The  only  thing  which  I  can  do  is  to  try- 
to  make  my  readers  understand  the  general  position 
as  it  presented  itself  before  the  murder  of  Rasputin 
by  quoting  some  speeches  which  were  delivered  in  the 
Duma  as  far  back  as  the  year  1912.  They  were  re- 
produced in  the  Russian  Liberal  organ,  the  Retsch, 
on  the  day  following  the  assassination  of  the  "Pro- 
phet." The  Russian  censor  offered  no  opposition  to 
this  republication. 

The  first  of  these  speeches  was  made  by  Mr.  Gout- 
schkofF,  one  of  the  most  enlightened  men  in  the  whole 
of  the  Russian  Empire,  whose  liberal  opinions  and 
sound  political  views  had  won  for  him  the  respect  of 
all  parties,  even  those  who  were  opposed  to  them. 
The  occasion  upon  which  it  was  pronounced  was  that 
of  the  discussion  of  the  budget  of  the  Holy  Synod,  a 
discussion  during  which  for  the  first  time  the  person- 
ality of  Rasputin,  together  with  his  activity,  was  pub- 
licly denounced  as  one  of  the  greatest  sources  of  dan- 
ger that  had  ever  threatened  the  country  as  well  as 
the  dynasty. 

"You  all  know,"  said  IMr.  Goutschkoff  in  this  mem- 
orable address,  "what  a  terrible  drama  Russia  is  liv- 
ing through  at  present.  With  sorrow  in  our  hearts 
and  with  terror  in  our  souls  we  have  followed  its  de- 
velopments, and  we  are  dreading  its  consequences. 
Standing  in  the  very  heart  of  this  drama  we  see  a 
mysterious,  enigmatical,  tragi-comical  figure,  who 
seems  to  have  come  out  of  the  dark  ages,  which  we  be- 
lieved had  passed  away  forever,  into  the  full  light  of 
the  twentieth  century.  Perhaps  this  figure  is  that  of 
a  sectarian  of  the  worst  kind  who  is  trying  to  popu- 


Rasputin  155 

larise  amongst  us  his  mystical  rites ;  perhaps  it  is  that 
of  an  adventurer  seeking  to  hide  under  the  cloak  of 
religious  fanaticism  and  superstition  his  numerous 
swindles.  By  what  means  has  this  individual  suc- 
ceeded in  rising  to  such  a  prominent  position  and  in 
acquiring  such  an  influence  which  even  the  dignitaries 
of  our  church,  together  with  the  highest  functionaries 
in  our  State,  acknowledge  and  which  they  seek  to 
propitiate? 

"If  we  had  had  to  do  with  only  this  one  figure 
Vvhich  had  made  its  way  on  the  field  of  religious  su- 
perstition and  which  has  thriven,  thanks  to  an  exalted 
spirit  of  mysticism,  a  state  of  mind  which,  though  not 
perhaps  bordering  on  insanity,  is  yet  not  quite  nor- 
mal, then  we  should  have  said  nothing.  We  might 
have  regretted  the  fact;  we  might  even  have  wept 
over  it,  but  we  would  not  have  spoken  about  it. 

"But  unfortunately  this  figure  is  not  standing  alone. 
Behind  it  there  is  a  whole  crew,  strong  and  varied, 
unscrupulous  and  gi-asping,  which  is  taking  advan- 
tage of  its  position  and  of  the  talents  of  persuasion 
which  it  may  possess.  Amongst  this  crew  there  are 
to  be  found  journalists  in  want  of  copy,  shady  busi- 
ness men,  adventurers  of  every  kind  and  sort.  It  is 
they  who  are  the  moving  spirits  in  all  this  sad  history, 
it  is  they  who  inspire  it,  they  who  tell  it  what  it  is  to 
do.  They  constitute  a  kind  of  commercial  enterprise, 
and  they  understand  how  to  play  their  game  in  the 
most  clever  manner. 

"Before  such  a  spectacle  it  is  our  duty  to  cry  out 
as  loud  as  we  can  that  one  ought  to  beware  of  all  those 
people,  and  that  the  church — our  church,  and  the 


156  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

country — our  country,  find  themselves  in  imminent 
danger,  because  no  revolution  and  no  anti-Christian 
propaganda  have  ever  done  them  more  harm  than  the 
events  which  are  daily  taking  place  under  our  eyes  for 
the  last  twelve  months." 

Two  years  later,  in  1914,  a  few  weeks  before  the 
breaking  out  of  the  present  war,  another  deputy,  this 
time  a  clergyman.  Father  Filonenko,  spoke  about 
Rasputin  in  the  Duma,  and  did  so  in  the  following 
strong  terms : 

"As  a  faithful  and  devoted  son  of  our  Holy  Ortho- 
dox Church,  I  consider  it  my  painful  duty  to  mention 
once  more  what  has  already  been  discussed  here,  by  so 
many  orators  better  than  myself,  and  to  recur  to  a 
subject  which  is  at  present  talked  of  at  the  corner  of 
every  street,  in  every  town  and  in  every  village,  no 
matter  how  distant  and  how  far  from  any  civilised 
centre  in  our  vast  Empire.  We  find  ourselves  com- 
pelled to  look  upon  this  unexplainable  influence  of  a 
common  adventurer,  belonging  to  the  worst  type  of 
those  sectarians,  whom  until  now  we  have  known  by 
the  name  of  Khlystys,  and  despised  accordingly.  We 
are  obliged  to  reckon  with  this  influence  of  a  man 
upon  whom  all  the  sane  elements  in  our  society  look 
with  contempt." 

On  that  same  day  another  deputy  belonging  to  the 
group  of  Ultra-Conservatives,  Prince  Mansyreff,  al- 
so spoke  about  Rasputin,  with  perhaps  even  more 
energy  than  any  one  had  ever  done  before  in  the 
Duma.    Said  the  Prince: 

"The  adventure  of  Illiodore  ended  in  ridicule,  but 
we  have  now  in  his  place  another  adventurer,  with 


Rasputin  157 

the  personality  of  whom  are  connected  the  most  ne- 
farious and  disgusting  rumours,  the  most  unnatural 
and  contemptible  crimes.  It  is  useless  to  mention  his 
name ;  every  one  knows  who  he  is,  and  of  whom  I  am 
talking.  He  has  been  let  loose  on  our  society  to  ac- 
quire some  influence  over  it,  by  men  even  more  shame- 
less than  he  is  himself;  he  has  been  used  to  terrorise 
all  those  who  have  dared  to  express  their  opinions 
against  the  currents  which  prevail  at  present  in  our 
administrative  circles.  This  adventurer,  whenever 
he  travels  and  whenever  he  arrives  in  St.  Petersburg, 
is  met  at  the  railway  station  by  the  highest  dignitar- 
ies of  the  church;  before  him  pray,  as  they  would  do 
to  God,  unfortunate  hysterical  ladies  of  the  highest 
social  circles.  This  individual,  who  only  seeks  the 
satisfaction  of  the  lowest  instinct  of  a  low  nature,  has 
introduced  himself  into  the  very  heart  of  our  country 
and  of  our  society,  and  we  find  and  feel  everywhere 
his  disgusting  and  filthy  influence." 

A  few  days  after  this  memorable  sitting  of  the 
Duma  the  Government  issued  instructions  to  the  press 
never  to  mention  Rasputin's  name  or  to  speak  of  any 
subject  connected  with  him  in  the  newspapers.  As 
soon  as  this  became  known  the  Octobrists  put  down  on 
the  order  of  the  day  in  the  Duma  an  interpellation  on 
the  matter,  and  Mr.  GoutschkoiF  in  moving  it  ex- 
claimed : 

"Dark  and  dangerous  days  have  arrived,  and  the 
conscience  of  the  Russian  nation  has  been  deeply 
moved  by  the  events  of  the  last  few  months,  and  is 
protesting  against  the  appearance  amongst  us  of 
symptoms  proving  that  we  are  returning  to  the  dark- 


158  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

est  periods  of  the  middle  ages.  It  has  cried  out  that 
things  are  going  wrong  in  our  State,  and  that  danger 
threatens  our  most  holy  national  ideals." 

Prince  LvofF  seconded  the  motion,  and  asked  the 
Government  to  explain  who  was  this  "strange  per- 
sonality who  had  been  taken  under  the  special  pro- 
tection of  the  administration,  who  was  considered  as 
too  sacred  to  be  subjected  to  the  criticism  of  the  press, 
and  who  had  been  put  upon  such  a  pedestal  that  no 
one  was  allowed  to  touch  or  even  to  approach  him." 

I  would  not  have  quoted  these  speeches  but  for  the 
fact  that  they  all  bore  on  the  same  point,  the  one  that 
I  have  tried  to  make  clear  to  the  mind  of  my  readers. 
This  point  is  that  the  danger  which  Rasputin  un- 
doubtedly personified  in  Russian  society  at  large  did 
not  proceed  from  his  own  personality,  but  from  the 
character  of  the  men  who  surrounded  him,  who  had 
made  out  of  him  their  tool  and  who  were  trying 
through  him  to  rule  Russia  and  to  push  it  into  the 
arms  of  Germany.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Germany 
had  been  carefully  following  all  the  phases  of  the 
drama  which  culminated  in  the  assassination  of  the 
"Prophet"  and  had  been  helping  by  her  subsidies  the 
underhand  and  mysterious  work  of  men  like  Mr. 
Manassevitsch-Maniuloff  and  his  satellites,  and  like 
Mr.  Sturmer.  Sturmer  believed  quite  earnestly  that 
he  would  secure  immortality  for  his  name  and  for  his 
work  if  he  contrived  to  conclude  a  peace  which  every 
one  knew  that  Russia  required,  but  which  no  one  ex- 
cept himself  and  the  adventurers  to  whom  he  owed 
his  elevation  thought  of  making  except  in  con- 
cert with  Russia's  Allies,  and  only  after  Germany 


Rasputin  159 

had  been  compelled  to  accept  the  conditions  of  her 
adversaries. 

The  whole  Rasputin  affair  was  nothing  but  a  Gler- 
iTian  -ntrigue  which  aimed  at  discrediting  the  dynasty 
and  pevhaps  even  at  overthrowing  the  sovereign  from 
his  throne. 

Thanks  to  the  infernal  cunning  of  the  people  who 
were  its  leaders,  the  Imperial  circle  and  even  some  of 
the  Imperial  family  were  represented  as  being  entire- 
ly under  the  "Prophet's"  influence.  And  thanks  to 
the  solitary  existence  which  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press were  leading,  and  to  the  small  number  of  people 
who  were  allowed  to  see  them,  these  rumours  gained 
ground,  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  existed  no 
one  capable  of  contradicting  them  or  of  pointing  out 
their  absurdity.  Calumnies  as  stupid  as  they  were  de- 
grading to  the  authors  of  them  were  set  in  circulation, 
and  the  revolutionary  movement  which  Germany  had 
been  fomenting  grew  stronger  and  stronger  every 
day,  until  it  reached  the  lower  classes.  These  classes 
by  a  kind  of  miracle  were  also  kept  very  well  informed 
as  to  everything  that  was  connected  with  Rasputin  or 
with  the  subterranean  work  performed  by  his  party, 
a  work  which  tended  to  only  make  the  House  of  Ro- 
manoff unpopular,  and  to  represent  it  as  incapable 
of  taking  to  heart  the  interest  of  the  country  over 
which  it  reigned. 

If  we  consider  who  were  the  people  at  the  side  of 
the  "Prophet,"  and  who  inspired  all  his  actions  as 
well  as  his  utterances  we  find  police  agents,  adven- 
turers who  had  been  sometimes  in  prison,  and  some- 
times in  exile ;  functionaries  eager  to  obtain  some  fat 


i6o  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

sinecure  in  which  they  mip-ht  do  nothing  and  earn  a 
great  deal;  stock  exchange  speculators  of  doubtful 
morality  and  still  more  doubtful  honesty;  women  of 
low  character  and  army  purveyors,  mixed  up  with  an 
innumerable  number  of  spies.  Most  of  these  last 
were  in  the  German  service  and  were  working  for  all 
that  they  were  worth  to  bring  about  some  palace  con- 
spiracy or  some  popular  movement  capable  of  re- 
moving from  his  throne  a  Czar  whose  honesty  and 
straightforwardness  of  character  precluded  the  pos- 
sibility of  Russia  betraying  the  trust  which  her  Allies 
had  put  in  her. 

Yet  this  was  precisely  what  these  people  wanted, 
and  what  they  had  made  up  their  minds  to  force 
through,  thanks  to  the  indignation  which  the  various 
stories  which  were  being  repeated  every  day  concern- 
ing Rasputin  and  the  favour  which  he  enjoyed  was 
arousing  all  over  Russia.  The  Emperor,  of  course, 
knew  nothing  of  all  this;  the  Empress  even  less. 
There  was  no  one  to  tell  them  the  truth,  and  they 
would  have  been  more  surprised  than  any  one  else 
had  they  suspected  the  ocean  of  lies  which  had  been 
told  concerning  themselves,  and  concerning  the  kind- 
ness with  which  they  had  treated  a  man  whom  they 
considered  as  being  half  saint  and  half  mad,  but  of 
whom  they  had  never  thought  in  their  wildest  dreams 
of  making  their  chief  adviser. 

In  this  extraordinary  history  there  is  also  another 
point  which  must  be  noticed.  When  the  first  decep- 
tions produced  by  the  disasters  of  the  beginning  of 
the  campaign  had  thrown  public  opinion  into  a  state 
of  mind  which  was  bordering  well  nigh  upon  despair. 


Rasputin  i6i 

and  before  it  had  had  time  to  recover  from  the  shock 
of  the  fall  of  Warsaw  and  the  line  of  fortresses  upon 
which  they  had  relied  to  protect  the  western  frontier, 
people  had  begun  to  seek  for  the  cause  of  the  great 
disillusion  they  had  been  called  upon  to  experi- 
ence. It  was  very  quickly  discovered,  partly  through 
the  revelations  that  had  been  made  in  the  Duma, 
that  the  real  reason  for  all  the  sad  things  which 
had  happened  lay  in  the  systematic  plundering  of 
the  public  exchequer,  that  had  been  going  on  for 
such  a  long  time  and  which  even  the  experiences  of 
the  Japanese  war  had  not  cured.  .When  the  fierce 
battle  against  Germany  began  in  grim  earnest,  the 
first  thought  of  the  Emperor  had  been  to  try  to  put 
an  end  to  these  depredations  that  had  compromised 
the  prestige  and  the  good  name  of  Russia  abroad  as 
well  as  at  home.  Great  severity  was  shown  to  the 
many  adventurers  who  had  enriched  themselves  at 
the  expense  of  the  nation.  When  it  had  come  to  the 
fabrication  of  the  necessary^  ammunition  required  by 
the  army,  then  the  help  of  Russia's  Allies — England 
and  France — had  been  sought.  Thanks  to  the  ef- 
forts of  these  two  Powers,  something  like  order  was 
re-established  in  the  vast  machine  of  the  War  Office. 
The  fabrication  of  shells  of  a  size  that  could  not  fit 
any  gun  was  stopped.  The  army  at  the  front  got 
clothes  and  food  of  which  it  had  been  in  want  at  the 
beginning  of  the  campaign.  Ammunition  was  des- 
patched where  it  was  required,  and  not  in  the  con- 
trary direction  as  often  had  been  the  case  before.  The 
Allies  helped  Russia  to  the  best  of  their  ability,  and 
Russia,  at  least  the  sane  and  honest  part  of  Russian 


i62  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

society,  felt  grateful  to  them  for  their  co-operation  in 
the  work  of  their  common  defence  against  a  foe  which 
it  had  become  necessary  to  defeat  so  thoroughly  that 
civilisation  could  no  longer  be  endangered  by  its  ex- 
istence and  activity. 

But  the  people  who  surrounded  Rasputin  and  with 
whom  he  was  working  were  not  grateful  for  the  la- 
bour of  love  which  Great  Britain  and  France  had 
assumed.  They  began  to  complain  of  the  so-called 
interference  of  foreign  elements  with  the  details  of 
the  Russian  administration.  Some  went  even  so  far 
as  to  saj^  that  Russia  was  becoming  an  English  colony. 
All  the  plunderers,  all  the  thieves  who  had  had  their 
own  way  for  so  many  months,  perceiving  that  they 
would  no  longer  have  the  opportunities  which  they 
had  enjoyed  before  to  add  to  their  ill-gotten  gains, 
tried  by  all  means  in  their  power  to  discredit  the  Sov- 
ereign whose  firmness  they  had  found  in  their  way. 
They  joined  all  the  pro-Germans  of  whom,  alas,  there 
existed  but  too  many  in  the  country,  in  an  effort  to 
bring  about  a  peace,  the  shame  of  which  would  have 
been  quite  indifferent  to  them. 

It  is  not  at  all  wonderful  if  those  shameless  ad- 
venturers started  the  conspiracy  for  the  success  of 
which  they  required  the  moral  influence  of  Rasputin 
and  the  authority  of  his  person.  It  was,  after  all, 
such  an  easy  matter  to  say  that  in  such  and  such  a 
case  he  had  been  acting  in  conformity  with  the  Im- 
perial will.  No  one  could  disprove  the  truth  of  the 
assertion,  and  in  that  wa^^  the  Emperor  was  made 
responsible  for  all  the  unavowable  things  which  were 
going  on.    He  was  supposed  to  have  given  his  sane- 


Rasputin  163 

tion  to  all  these  things  simi)ly  because  it  had  pleased, 
not  even  Rasputin  himself,  but  individuals  like  Mr. 
INIanassevitsch-Maniuloff,  to  declare  that  they  had 
been  done  with  his  knowledge  and  approval. 

Can  one  feel  surprised  if  in  the  presence  of  this 
artificial  atmosphere,  and  still  more  artificial  posi- 
tion, an  intense  feeling  of  disgust  took  hold  of  real 
patriots,  and  made  them  contemplate  seriously  the 
possibility  of  trying  at  least  to  unmask  Rasputin  and 
his  crew  and  bring  to  the  ears  of  the  Czar  all  the  dif- 
ferent rvmiours  which  were  in  circulation  concerning 
the  "Prophet"  and  what  was  going  on  around  him? 
^len  of  experience  and  of  weight  seriously  thought 
how  this  could  be  done.  They  made  no  secret  of  the 
fact,  unfortunately  for  themselves  as  well  as  for  the 
success  of  their  plans.  What  was  going  on  very 
soon  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Manassevitsch-JVIaniu- 
loff  and  made  him  more  frantic  than  he  had  ever  been 
to  overthrow  what  he  called  "foreign  influences"  in 
Russia.  He  api)lied  himself  with  renewed  energy  to 
bring  about,  by  fair  means  or  foul,  the  conclusion  of 
a  peace  on  which  depended  his  whole  future  destiny. 
And  he  might  perhaps  have  succeeded  if  circum- 
stances had  not  turned  against  him  and  put  an  end 
to  his  machinations,  at  least  for  a  time. 

-Mr.  Sturmer  was  but  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  this 
artful,  clever  private  secretary  whom  he  had  been 
persuaded,  or  rather  compelled,  to  take.  Manasse- 
vitsch-lManiuloiF  had  managed  to  get  hold  of  him  and 
to  keep  him  securely  bound  to  his  own  policy.  He 
was  the  man  who  had  contrived  to  put  him  into 
the  position  of  authority  which  he  enjoyed,  and  Mr. 


164  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Sturmer,  whatever  may  have  been  his  other  defects, 
had  a  grateful  nature.  Besides,  ManiulofF  amused 
him,  and  took  an  immense  amount  of  trouble  off  his 
hands.  He  could  rely  on  his  never  doing  anything 
stupid,  even  when  he  did  something  very  dishonest. 
Mr.  Sturmer  was  absorbed  in  great  political  combina- 
tions and  was  looking  toward  a  long  term  of  office. 
■  He  felt  absolutely  safe  in  the  situation  which  he  oc- 
cupied, where  at  any  moment  he  liked  he  could  speak 
with  the  Czar  and  explain  to  him  what  he  thought  to 
be  most  advantageous  to  the  interests  of  his  party,  or 
the  events  of  the  day  as  they  followed  in  quick  suc- 
cession. 

Alas  for  this  security!  An  unexpected  incident 
was  to  destroy  it  in  the  most  ruthless  manner.  Ras- 
putin, together  with  Mr.  ManiulofF,  went  too  far  in 
the  system  of  blackmailing  which  they  had  been  prac- 
tising with  such  skill  for  so  many  long  months.  For 
once  they  found  their  master  in  the  person  of  one  of 
the  directors  of  a  large  banking  establishment  in 
Petrograd,  who,  upon  being  threatened  with  all  kinds 
of  unpleasantness  unless  he  consented  to  pay  a  large 
sum  of  money,  did  not  protest  as  others  had  done  be- 
fore him  in  similar  cases,  but  gave  it  immediately, 
first  having  taken  the  numbers  of  the  banknotes  which 
he  had  handed  over  to  Mr.  ManiulofF.  He  went  with 
these  numbers  to  the  military  authorities  and  lodged 
with  them  a  formal  complaint  against  the  blackmail- 
ers. The  result  was  as  immediate  as  it  was  unex- 
pected. The  General  StafF  had  been  waiting  a  long 
time  for  just  such  an  opportunity  to  proceed  against 
Rasputin  and  the  members  of  his  crew.     That  very 


Rasputin  165 

same  night,  in  obedience  to  orders  received  from  the 
military  commander  of  Petrograd,  Mr.  Manasse- 
vitsch-Maniuloff' s  house  was  searched  from  top  to 
bottom,  and  he  himself  conveyed  to  prison,  without 
even  having  been  allowed  to  acquaint  his  chief,  Mr. 
Sturmer,  with  what  had  happened  to  him. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

The  arrest  of  the  Prime  Minister's  private  secre- 
tary produced,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  an  immense 
sensation  in  Petrograd  and  intense  consternation 
among  the  friends  of  Rasputin.  They  were  thus  de- 
prived of  the  one  strong  ally  capable  of  guiding  their 
steps  in  the  best  direction  possible  under  the  circum- 
stances, and,  moreover,  of  the  one  who  was  possessed 
of  information  which  no  one  else  could  possibly  get  at. 
Mr.  Sturmer  himself  was  more  than  dismayed  at  this 
step  taken  by  the  military  authorities  without  con- 
sulting him  and  resented  it  as  a  personal  affront.  He 
tried  to  interfere  in  the  matter  and  went  so  far  as  to 
demand  as  his  right  the  liberation  of  Manassevitsch- 
Maniuloff.  But  his  intervention,  instead  of  helping 
the  person  in  whose  favour  it  had  been  displayed,  gave 
on  the  contrary  the  signal  for  a  series  of  attacks 
against  Mr.  Sturmer  himself,  attacks  of  which  the 
most  important  was  the  speech  made  by  Mr.  Miliu- 
koff  in  the  Duma,  where  he  publicly  accused  the 
Prime  Minister  of  being  in  league  with  Germany  and 
of  working  in  favour  of  a  separate  peace  with  that 
country. 

Of  course,  the  remarks  of  the  leader  of  the  opposi- 
tion in  the  Chamber  were  not  allowed  to  be  published, 
but  so  many  persons  had  heard  them  and  so  many 
others  had  heard  of  them  that  the  contents  of  the  ad- 

166 


Rasputin  167 

dress  of  Mr.  Miliukoff  very  soon  became  public  prop- 
erty. No  one  had  ever  cared  for  Mr.  Sturmer,  whose 
leanings  had  always  been  for  autocracy.  While  Gov- 
ernor of  Tver  he  had  distinguished  himself  by  the  zeal 
which  he  displayed  in  putting  down  every  manifesta- 
tion of  public  opinion  in  his  government.  In  addition 
he  had  been  connected  with  various  matters  where 
bribery  played  a  prominent  part,  a  fact  which  had 
not  helped  him  to  win  any  popularity  in  the  province 
which  he  had  administered.  His  only  merits  lay  in 
his  ability  to  speak  excellent  French  and  in  his  hav- 
ing very  pronounced  English  sympathies.  These 
sympathies,  however,  by  some  kind  of  unexplainable 
miracle,  died  out  immediately  after  his  assumption  of 
office.  He  at  once  fell  under  the  influence  of  a  cer- 
tain party  that  clamoured  for  the  removal  of  foreign- 
ers from  the  administrative  and  political  life  of  Rus- 
sia. He  was  not  clever,  though  he  had  a  very  high 
idea  of  his  own  intelligence  and  knowledge. 

Though  he  had  never  carried  his  knowledge  be- 
yond a  thorough  grasp  of  the  precedence  that  ought 
to  be  awarded  to  distinguished  guests  at  a  dinner 
partj^  (which  he  had  acquired  while  he  was  master 
of  the  ceremonies  at  the  Imperial  Court),  yet  he  was 
convinced  of  his  capacity  to  fill  the  most  important 
offices  of  the  Russian  State.  These  he  looked  upon 
with  the  eyes  of  a  farmer  in  the  presence  of  his  best 
milking  cow.  He  was  not  a  courtier,  but  a  flatterer  by 
nature,  and  an  essentially  accommodating  one,  too. 
There  was  no  danger,  of  his  ever  turning  his  back  on 
persons  who  he  had  reasons  to  think  were  in  posses- 
sion of  the  favour  of  personages  in  high  places.    And 


i68  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

he  had  a  wonderful  faculty  for  toadying  wherever  he 
expected  that  it  might  prove  useful  to  his  career. 

For  some  years  he  had  vegetated  in  a  kind  of  semi- 
disgrace  and  fretted  over  his  inactivity.  When  he 
found  himself  able  once  more  to  make  a  display  of 
his  administrative  talents  he  took  himself  and  these 
talents  quite  seriously  and  imagined  that  perhaps  he 
could  become  the  saviour  of  Russia,  but  surely  a  very 
rich  man.  This  last  idea  had  been  suggested  to  him 
by  Mr.  Manassevitsch-ManiulofF,  who  in  conversa- 
tions with  him  had  imbued  Mr.  Sturmer  with  the  con- 
viction that  it  would  be  a  proof  of  careless  neglect  on 
his  part  if  he  did  not  make  the  most  of  the  many  op- 
portunities his  important  position  as  Prime  Minister 
put  in  his  way,  and  did  not  assure  the  prosperity  of 
his  old  age,  when  he  had  at  his  disposal  all  possible 
sources  of  information  out  of  which  he  might  make 
a  profit.  Mr.  Sturmer  was  no  saint,  and  the  weak- 
nesses of  the  flesh  had  always  appealed  to  him.  There 
is  nothing  wonderful  in  the  fact  that  he  listened  with 
attention,  and  even  with  satisfaction,  to  the  confi- 
dences which  were  poured  into  his  ear  by  his  private 
secretary,  of  whose  talents  he  had  a  most  exalted 
opinion. 

When  his  Fides  Achates  was  arrested  and  thrown 
into  a  more  or  less  dark  dungeon,  Mr.  Sturmer  was  so 
dismayed  that  he  allowed  himself  to  be  drawn  into 
the  mistake  of  identifying  himself  with  the  prisoner 
and  claiming  his  liberty  as  a  right.  It  is  related  that 
when  the  object  of  his  solicitude  heard  of  the  various 
steps  undertaken  by  the  Prime  Minister  on  his  be- 
half he  gave  vent  to  words  of  impatience  at  what  he 


Rasputin  169 

considered  an  imprudence  likely  to  cost  a  good  deal  to 
the  guilty  ones. 

"Sturmer  ought  to  have  known  that  a  man  like 
myself  does  not  allow  himself  to  be  arrested  without 
having  taken  the  precaution  to  be  able  to  impose  on 
those  who  had  ventured  to  do  so  the  necessity  of  lib- 
erating him,"  he  had  exclaimed. 

The  fact  was  that  Manassevitsch-Maniuloff  had 
put  to  profit  the  months  when,  in  his  capacity  as  pri- 
vate secretary  to  the  Prime  Minister,  he  had  access  to 
all  the  archives  and  secret  papers  of  the  Ministry  of 
the  Interior.  He  had  taken  copies  of  more  than  one 
important  document,  the  divulging  of  which  might 
have  put  the  Russian  Government  in  an  embarrassing 
position.  Some  persons  even  said  that  his  zeal  had 
carried  him  so  far  as  to  make  him  appropriate  to  him- 
self the  originals  of  these  documents,  leaving  only  a 
worthless  copy  in  their  place.  Tme  or  not,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  spirit  of  foresight  that  had  always  dis- 
tinguished him  had  induced  him  to  take  certain  pre- 
cautions against  any  possible  mishap  capable  of  in- 
terfering with  his  career.  He  was  able  to  regard  his 
imprisonment  philosophically.  This  was  more  than 
Mr.  Sturmer  could  do.  The  latter  had  reason  to 
fear  that  during  the  police  search  of  the  flat  occu- 
pied by  Mr.  Manassevitsch-Maniuloff  some  compro- 
mising letters  had  been  discovered.  This  fear  did  not 
add  to  his  happiness  or  to  his  equanimity.  Besides, 
he  was  not  strong  enough  to  resist  the  attacks  which, 
dating  from  that  day,  were  poured  upon  his  head.  In 
spite  of  the  assurances  Avhich  Rasputin  was  continu- 


170  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ally  giving  him  that  he  had  nothing  to  fear,  he  did  not 
share  the  confidence  of  the  "Prophet." 

He  had  good  reasons  for  this  fear.  In  the  Duma, 
in  the  Petrograd  drawing  rooms,  in  the  army  and 
among  the  public,  all  had  grown  tired  of  Mr.  Stur- 
mer,  and  all  spoke  of  nothing  else  but  of  the  necessity 
of  compelling  him  to  resign  his  post.  Among  the 
different  reproaches  which  were  addressed  to  him  was 
that  of  being  an  enemy  of  England  and  of  trying  to 
w^ork  against  the  Russo-English  alliance.  It  was 
very  well  known  that  his  relations  with  Sir  George 
Buchanan,  the  British  Ambassador,  were  not  cordial. 
Sir  George,  in  spite  of  all  that  the  pro-Germans  liked 
to  say  about  him,  was  a  popular  personage  in  Russia, 
that  is,  among  the  sane  portion  of  Russian  society, 
which  had  hailed  with  joy  the  initiative  that  he  had 
taken  in  the  great  work  of  reorganisation  of  the  Rus- 
sian administration. 

Thanks  to  the  English  officers  who  had  arrived  in 
Russia  with  the  aim  of  bringing  some  kind  of  order 
out  of  the  chaos  that  had  prevailed  not  only  in  the 
War  Office,  but  in  every  other  branch  of  the  Govern- 
ment, the  military  position  of  the  Empii'e  had  con- 
siderably improved,  and  the  great  work  of  national 
defence  had  been  at  last  put  upon  a  sound  basis.  As 
a  man  occupying  a  very  important  position  in  Petro- 
grad wrote  to  me  during  the  course  of  last  summer: 
"There  are  some  people  here  who  say  that  Russia  is 
fast  becoming  an  English  colony,  but  I  reply  to  them 
that  she  might  certainly  do  worse,  if  by  that  word  is 
meant  the  introduction  of  the  English  spirit  of  order 
and  of  English  honesty  in  our  country." 


Rasputin  171 

This  was  the  opinion  of  a  sincere  Russian  patriot. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  shared  by  all  the  best 
elements  of  the  nation,  who  had  recognised  that  in 
the  crisis  through  which  their  Fatherland  was  going 
only  one  idea  ought  to  dominate  everything,  and  that 
was  the  necessity  of  imposing  upon  Germany  a  peace 
that  would  at  last  give  to  the  world  the  assurance  that 
it  would  never  be  called  upon  again  to  undergo  an- 
other such  catastrophe  as  the  one  under  which  it  was 
struggling.  Mr.  Sturmer,  however,  was  of  a  quite 
different  opinion.  This  was  well  known  everywhere, 
especially  in  parliamentary  circles.  Mr.  Miliukoif 
madie  himself  the  echo  of  the  popular  voice  when  he 
delivered  his  famous  indictment  of  the  Prime  Minis- 
ter. The  latter  retorted  by  issuing  against  the  leader 
of  the  Opposition  a  writ  for  libel,  and  applied  him- 
self with  renewed  energy  to  the  task  of  getting  out 
of  prison  the  man  who  had  been  the  prime  mover  in 
the  dark  and  sinister  intrigue  of  which  Rasputin  was 
the  principal  figure.  At  last  he  succeeded,  and  Man- 
assevitsch-Maniuloff  was  released  on  bail.  Among  all 
the  papers  which  had  been  confiscated  at  his  home 
not  one  incriminating  document  had  been  found,  and 
the  only  thing  against  him  that  could  be  proved  was 
the  black-mailing  scheme  against  the  Bank  whose  di- 
rector had  had  him  arrested.  He  threatened,  in  case 
he  should  be  brought  to  trial,  to  make  certain  revela- 
tions absolutely  damaging  for  more  than  one  highly 
placed  personage,  and  he  contrived  to  inspire  a  great 
terror  even  among  those  most  eager  to  have  him  con- 
demned for  his  numerous  extortions  and  other  shame- 
ful deeds.    As  soon  as  he  was  at  liberty  he  set  Ras- 


172  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

putin  to  working  in  his  favour,  and  made  the  latter 
display  an  activity  that  at  last  exasperated  the  public 
against  the  "Prophet"  to  such  an  extent  that  the  first 
thought  of  organising  a  conspiracy  to  remove  him  was 
started,  and  very  soon  became  quite  a  familiar  one 
with  more  than  one  person. 

To  be  quite  exact,  this  thought  had  already  ex- 
isted for  some  time.  About  a  year  after  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  some  enterprising  individuals  in  Pet- 
rograd  tried  to  get  rid  of  the  "Prophet"  by  entan- 
gling him  in  some  disgraceful  escapade  which  would 
have  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  leave  Petrograd. 
In  accordance  with  this  plan  he  was  invited  one  night 
to  supper  at  some  fashionable  music  hall,  of  which 
there  exist  so  many  in  the  Russian  capital.  Bohemian 
singers  were  called  in  and  an  unlimited  amount  of 
champagne  provided.  Rasputin,  who  was  rather  fond 
of  such  adventures  when  he  was  not  obliged  to  pay 
for  their  cost  in  rubles  and  copecs,  accepted  with 
alacrity.  He  soon  became  quite  drunk.  Then,  at 
the  invitation  of  one  of  the  guests,  he  proceeded  to 
show  them  the  manner  in  which  the  Khlistys,  the  re- 
ligious sect  to  which  he  belonged,  danced  around  the 
lighted  fire,  which  was  an  indispensable  feature  of 
their  meetings.  As  he  was  dancing,  or  rather  turning 
round  and  round  a  table  that  had  been  put  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  room,  he  took  off  some  of  his  clothes,  just 
as  his  followers  used  to  do  when  they  were  holding 
one  of  their  assemblies  in  real  earnest.  Some  of  the 
assistants  seized  hold  of  the  opportunity  and  hid  the 
garments  of  which  he  had  divested  himself,  then  called 
in  the  police,  requiring  them  to  draw  up  a  report  of 


Rasputin  173 

what  had  taken  place.  On  the  next  day  this  report 
was  taken  to  a  high  authority,  in  the  hope  that  it 
would  have  a  damaging  effect  on  the  reputation  of 
Rasputin.  The  result,  however,  was  quite  different 
from  that  which  had  been  expected,  for  the  person 
who  had  brought  the  report  to  the  authority  in  ques- 
tion instead  of  being  believed  was  treated  as  a  libeler 
and  himself  compelled  to  retire  from  public  life.  Af- 
ter this  it  was  generally  recognised  that  nothing  in 
the  world  would  be  strong  enough  to  bring  about 
the  downfall  of  the  "Prophet." 

In  the  meanwhile  the  efforts  of  the  Opposition  party 
in  the  Duma  had  succeeded  to  the  extent  of  forcing 
Mr.  Sturmer  to  resign  as  Prime  Minister ;  but  he  had 
influence  enough  to  secure  his  appointment  as  High 
Chancellor  of  the  Imperial  Court,  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant positions  in  Russia.  He  did  not  fall  into 
disgrace,  but  remained  the  power  behind  the  throne 
whose  existence,  though  not  officially  recognised,  yet 
was  everywhere  acknowledged.  He  had  not  been 
dismissed,  he  had  simply  gone  away — a  very  different 
thing  altogether  in  the  realm  of  the  Czar.  Though 
no  longer  a  Minister,  he  was  still  a  personage  to  be 
considered  as  capable  of  an  infinitude  of  good  or  of 
harm,  according  as  it  might  please  him  to  exert  his 
influence.  His  successor,  Mr.  Trepoff,  an  upright 
and  fairly  able  man,  did  not  long  retain  the  office  he 
had  accepted  much  against  his  will.  With  him  de- 
parted one  of  the  most  popular  Ministers  Russia  had 
known  for  a  long  time,  Count  Paul  Ignatieff ,  the  able 
son  of  an  able  father.  He  had  for  something  like 
two  years  held  the  portfolio  of  Public  Instruction  to 


174  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  general  satisfaction  of  the  public  and  had  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  useless  to  go  on  fighting 
against  dark  powers  which  were  getting  the  upper 
hand  everywhere. 

The  resignation  of  these  two  statesmen  was  pre- 
ceded by  one  of  the  most  scandalous  incidents  in  Rus- 
sian modern  history,  the  trial  of  Mr.  Manassevitsch- 
Maniuloff .  This  had  been  put  off  from  day  to  day 
for  a  considerable  length  of  time  until  at  last  it  be- 
came impossible  to  secure  further  delay.  The  culprit 
had  taken  good  care,  as  I  have  already  indicated,  to 
put  in  safety  documents  of  a  most  incriminating  na- 
ture, implicating  many  persons  whom  the  authorities 
could  not  afford  to  see  mixed  up  in  the  dirty  business 
connected  with  the  numerous  sins  of  Mr.  Sturmer's 
private  secretary.  When  the  latter  was  questioned  by 
the  examining  magistrate  in  regard  to  that  last  trans- 
action which  had  brought  him  into  court,  he  declared 
that  he  had  acted  in  accordance  with  the  instructions 
which  he  had  received  from  his  chief  and  that  it  was 
not  he  himself,  but  the  Prime  INIinister  who  had  re- 
ceived the  money  which  the  bank  that  had  lodged  a 
complaint  against  him  had  been  induced  to  pay  in  or- 
der to  be  spared  certain  annoyances  with  which  it  had 
been  threatened.  He  had  insisted  upon  this  version 
of  the  affair  and  warned  the  magistrate  that  his  coun- 
sel would  develop  it  in  all  the  details  before  the  jury. 

In  the  meanwhile  Rasputin  was  moving  heaven  and 
earth  to  get  the  trial  postponed  and  to  get  the  charges 
against  the  prisoner  quashed  by  the  Chamber  of  Cas- 
sation. He  had  long  conferences  with  several  ladies 
having  free  entrance  into  the  Imperial  Palace  and  he 


Rasputin  175 

put  forward,  among  other  arguments,  the  one  which 
had  certain  points  in  its  favour:  that  it  would  be 
detrimental  to  the  public  interest  to  have  the  scan- 
dal of  such  a  trial  commented  upon  by  the  press  of 
the  whole  of  Europe  at  a  time  when  Russia  was 
struggling  against  a  formidable  foe,  always  ready  to 
catch  hold  of  anything  that  would  discredit  it  or  its 
institutions.  For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  the  efforts 
of  the  "Prophet"  would  be  crowned  with  success. 
Then  one  fine  day  opposite  currents  became  powerful 
and  Mr.  ManiuloiF  was  sent  before  a  jury  in  spite  of 
his  protestations  and  his  threats  of  revenge  upon  those 
who  had  taken  upon  themselves  the  responsibility  of 
subjecting  him  to  that  annoyance. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  December,  the  day  appointed 
for  the  trial,  the  halls  and  corridors  of  the  law  courts 
of  Petrograd  were  filled  with  an  inquisitive  crowd 
struggling  to  get  access  to  the  room  where  it  was  to 
take  place.  The  spectators  waited  a  long  time,  watch- 
ing curiously  the  impassive  face  of  the  hero  of  the  day, 
who  had  quietly  entered  the  hall  and  taken  his  place 
in  the  criminal  dock.  About  12  o'clock  the  Judges, 
together  with  the  public  prosecutor,  made  their  en- 
trance, when  to  the  general  surprise  the  latter  rose 
and  said  that,  owing  to  the  absence  of  several  impor- 
tant witnesses  for  the  prosecution,  he  moved  an  ad- 
journment of  the  proceedings  until  an  indefinite  time. 
What  had  happened,  what  had  brought  about  such 
an  extraordinary  change?  This  was  the  question 
which  one  could  hear  everywhere  after  the  Court  had 
risen  and  the  assembly  dispersed.    Comments  without 


176  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

number  followed  upon  this  decision,  which  no  one 
would  have  thought  possible  a  few  hours  before. 

In  spite  of  the  severe  censorship  over  the  press,  the 
principal  Liberal  organs  of  the  capital  published  short 
commentaries  which  revealed  the  feeling  of  intense 
indignation  that  prevailed  in  every  class  of  societj'. 
The  words  "Shame,  shame!"  were  heard  on  all  sides. 
It  is  not  at  all  wonderful  that  they  found  an  echo 
among  some  determined  spirits  who  resolved  at  last 
to  free  Russia  from  the  scourge  of  Rasputin,  whose 
hand  was  again  seen  in  the  whole  disgraceful  affair. 

This,  however,  was  not  at  all  an  easy  matter,  con- 
sidering the  fact  that  the  "Prophet"  had  become  very 
careful  and  that  his  followers  had  him  watched  wher- 
ever he  went  for  fear  of  an  attack  which  they  strongly 
suspected  was  being  contemplated.  The  house  where 
he  lived,  64  Gorokhovaja  Street,  was  always  sur- 
rounded by  policemen  and  secret  agents,  who  exam- 
ined every  person  who  entered  or  went  out  of  it.  Ras- 
putin himself  had  also  grown  suspicious,  even  of 
persons  with  whom  up  to  that  time  he  had  been  upon 
friendly  terms,  and  he  avoided  the  numerous  invita- 
tions that  began  once  more  to  be  showered  upon  him. 
He  spoke  again  of  returning  to  Siberia,  which  was 
always  with  him  a  sign  that  he  did  not  feel  himself  at 
ease  in  the  capital. 

I  had  an  opportunity  to  observe  this  restlessness 
the  second  time  that  I  met  him  at  the  house  of  that 
Mr.  De  Bock  whom  I  have  already  mentioned,  when 
he  declared  to  us  that  he  was  sick  of  Petrograd  and  of 
the  many  intrigues  which  were  going  on  there.  But 
that  was  before  the  war,  and  it  seems  that  after  it 


Rasputin  177 

began  the  ideas  of  Rasputin  changed  and  that  he 
was  always  saying  that  he  considered  it  his  duty  to 
remain  beside  his  friends  at  this  hour  of  national  peril. 
The  fact  that  his  feelings  had  changed  on  the  last  point 
proves  that  he  was  aware  of  the  danger  in  which  he 
stood,  and  of  which  it  is  likely  that  he  had  been  warned 
by  the  numerous  spies  who  were  but  too  ready  to  keep 
him  well  informed  of  all  that  was  to  his  interest  to 
know. 

One  thing  seems  certain,  and  that  is  the  activity 
which  he  began  to  display  during  the  last  weeks  and 
days  of  his  evil  life  in  favour  of  the  conclusion  of  a 
peace,  which  he  now  said  Russia  ought  to  make  if  she 
wished  to  escape  from  further  sin,  as  he  termed  it. 

Why  his  feelings  had  undergone  such  a  change  it 
is  impossible  to  say,  but  one  may  make  a  pretty  near 
guess.  One  of  the  principal  motives  which  actuated 
him  undoubtedly  was  the  idea  that  existed  among  a 
certain  circle  of  persons  that  if  peace  were  made  with 
Germany,  the  English  and  French  officials  working 
with  Russian  officials  in  perfecting  the  defence  of  the 
fatherland,  and  whose  presence  already  had  pre- 
vented so  many  malversations,  would  depart.  This 
would  leave  once  more  a  free  field  for  the  rapacity 
of  all  the  civil  and  military  functionaries  of  the  War 
Office  and  Commissariat  Departments,  who  could 
make  a  new  harvest  of  rubles  as  a  result  of  the  un- 
avoidable expenses  which  the  liquidation  of  the  war 
would  necessarily  entail. 

There  were,  however,  some  persons  who,  seeing  the 
dangers  in  the  path  in  which  this  nefarious  individual 
was  leading  Russia,  decided  that,  as  nothing  else  could 


178  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

bring  about  his  removal,  it  had  to  be  effected  by  vio- 
lent means.  I  do  not  seek  to  excuse  them,  far  less 
to  take  their  part.  Murder  remains  murder,  but  if 
ever  an  assassination  had  an  excuse,  this  was  the  slay- 
ing of  Rasputin,  which  also  implied  the  destruction 
of  the  crew  of  unscrupulous  people  of  which  he  was 
the  tool.  There  was  something  of  self-sacrifice  in  the 
conspiracy  to  which  he  fell  a  victim,  something  of  an 
intense  love  of  the  Fatherland  in  the  spirit  that  armed 
the  hand  of  the  man  whose  pistol  sent  him  into  eter- 
nity. One  may  condemn  the  deed  and  yet  excuse  i^s 
motive.  Though  I  am  not  trying  to  do  so,  yet  I  shall 
not  be  the  one  to  cry  out  for  vengeance  against  the 
over-excited  young  people  who  risked  everything  in 
the  world  to  deliver  their  country  from  evil. 

Of  the  details  of  the  murder  we  know  very  little, 
and  even  the  travellers  who  have  gone  abroad  since 
it  was  committed  could  only  speak  vaguely  about  the 
circumstances  that  attended  it.  It  is  certain,  how- 
ever, that  there  was  a  deeply  laid  and  well  organised 
plot  to  kill  the  "Prophet,"  that  about  a  dozen  persons, 
some  of  them  belonging  to  the  best  and  to  the  highest 
social  circles,  were  concerned  in  it,  and  that  at  last 
lots  were  drawn  to  select  the  man  who  was  to  execute 
the  victim.  Among  those  persons  were  members  of 
the  Conservative  faction  of  the  Duma,  some  officers 
of  several  guard  regiments,  and  even  ladies  of  the 
smartest  set  of  Petrograd.  That  something  was 
known  concerning  this  plot  in  governmental  circles 
can  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  the  Minister  of  the  lu' 
terior,  Mr.  Protopopoff ,  who  had  always  been  one  of 
the  most  ardent  disciples  of  Rasputin  and  who  had 


Rasputin  179 

been  working  with  him  for  the  conclusion  of  a  peace 
which  both  considered  to  be  useful  to  their  personal 
interests,  hearing  that  he  was  going  to  have  supper 
at  the  house  of  Prince  Youssoupoff,  sent  there  the 
Prefect  of  Petrograd,  General  Balk,  with  instructions 
to  watch  over  the  "Prophet."  .When  the  Prefect  ap- 
peared upon  the  scene,  he  was  politely  asked  by  the 
master  of  the  house  to  withdraw,  as  his  presence  was 
not  required. 

Young  Prince  Youssoupoff,  who,  by  the  way,  is 
well  known  in  London,  was  the  husband  of  the  Prin- 
cess Irene  of  Russia,  the  first  cousin  of  the  Czar.  By 
virtue  of  his  position  he  could  be  whatever  he  liked, 
even  to  dismiss  curtly  the  principal  police  official  of 
the  capital.  At  the  supper  which  he  gave  on  the  night 
when  Rasputin  was  killed  about  a  dozen  people  be- 
longing to  the  best  circle  of  Petrograd  society  were 
present.  What  passed  during  the  meal  and  how  the 
murder  itself  was  committed  is  not  known  even  now, 
though  several  versions  of  the  crime  are  given.  Some 
say  that  it  was  done  during  the  meal,  and  that  the 
pretext  for  it  was  the  conduct  of  Rasputin  toward  one 
of  the  ladies  present  at  the  table.  Other  people  relate 
that  they  waited  until  the  "Prophet"  was  on  the  point 
of  departing,  and  that  as  he  was  putting  on  his  over- 
coat the  young  man  who  had  drawn  the  lot  designat- 
ing him  for  the  deed  shot  him  with  his  revolver  at  the 
foot  of  the  stairs.  The  body  was  then  wrapped  up  in 
a  blanket  and  put  into  the  automobile  of  a  very  high 
personage,  which  was  waiting  in  the  garden  of  the 
house  where  the  event  took  place,  and  driven  to  the 
Neva,  where  it  was  dropped  under  the  ice.    It  seems 


i8o  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

that  after  this  had  been  accomplished  one  of  the  con- 
spirators went  to  Tsarskoie  Selo  and  informed  the 
Czar  of  what  had  taken  place,  as  well  as  of  his  own 
share  in  the  deed. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  authorities  had  become  sus- 
picious. At  3  o'clock  in  the  night  screams  had  been 
heard  by  a  policeman  on  duty  at  the  corner  of  the 
street  in  which  was  situated  the  house  of  Prince  Yous- 
soupoff.  He  also  noticed  several  persons  coming  out 
of  the  house,  not  by  the  usual  entrance,  but  by  the 
garden,  which  had  a  door  leading  into  another  street. 
After  this,  an  automobile  was  seen  driving  out  of  that 
same  garden,  an  altogether  strange  circumstance. 
This  automobile  was  seen  by  another  policeman  about 
one  hour  later  in  the  islands  which  surround  Petro- 
grad,  driving  close  to  the  Neva  and  not  on  the  usual 
road.  The  next  day  the  garden  of  Prince  Youssou- 
pofF  was  searched  by  Secret  Service  agents,  who  found 
some  traces  of  blood  on  the  snow,  but  the  servants 
of  the  Prince  declared  that  it  was  that  of  a  dog  that 
had  been  shot  the  day  before.  No  one  dared  say  or 
do  anything  more  against  the  supposed  murderers, 
especially  as  the  body  of  their  victim  had  not  yet  been 
found.  The  river  was  dragged,  but  it  was  not  until 
twenty-four  hours  after  the  event  that  the  dead  man 
was  discovered  under  the  ice  in  a  frozen  condition, 
with  the  features  so  completely  battered  that  they 
could  be  recognised  only  with  difficulty. 

The  curious  thing  is  that,  though  it  was  known 
exactly  where  the  body  had  been  dropped,  it  could 
not  be  found  at  once,  having  been  carried  away  by  the 
current  further  than  had  been  exjjected.     This  gave 


Rasputin  i8i 

rise  to  all  kind  of  rumours,  and  the  friends  of  Ras- 
putin tried  to  spread  the  news  that  he  had  escaped 
and  was  hiding  away  somewhere  from  his  persecu- 
tors. The  tale,  however,  could  not  be  kept  up  for  any 
length  of  time,  as  the  whole  capital  with  an  unheard- 
of  rapidity  became  aware  that  the  most  detested  man 
in  the  whole  of  Russia  had  at  last  met  with  the  fate 
which  he  so  richly  deserved.  The  joy  of  the  public 
could  not  be  suppressed,  notwithstanding  the  fear  of 
the  police.  In  all  the  theatres  and  public  places  the 
national  anthem  was  sung  with  an  immense  enthusi- 
asm. No  one  regretted  what  had  happened,  and  the 
people  suspected  of  having  had  a  hand  in  the  murder 
received  messages  of  congratulation  from  every  quar- 
ter. In  fact,  they  became  at  once  national  heroes. 
The  murder  so  far  has  remained  unpunished,  and  it 
is  more  than  likely  that  no  one  will  be  brought  to  ac- 
count for  it. 

As  for  the  body  of  Rasputin,  it  was  at  first  kept  in 
the  hospital  where  it  had  been  taken  after  its  recovery 
from  under  the  ice.  The  police  received  orders  not  to 
allow  it  to  be  seen  by  the  crowds,  which  it  was  feared 
would  flock  in  numbers  to  have  a  last  look  at  their 
"saint,"  the  "Blessed  Gregory,"  as  he  was  called.  But 
to  the  general  surprise  these  crowds  did  not  manifest 
any  curiosity  to  view  the  mortal  remains  of  the  man 
about  whom  so  much  fuss  had  been  made  in  his  life- 
time, but  after  whose  death  the  whole  Russian  world 
seemed  to  breathe  more  freely  than  it  had  been  able  to 
do  for  the  last  ten  years  or  so.  Among  the  clergy  sat- 
isfaction was  openly  expressed,  and  it  was  only  a  few 
hysterical  women  who  were  found  to  weep  over  the 


l82  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

end  of  the  career  of  one  of  the  wickedest  men  who 
had  ever  lived. 

The  question  most  discussed  in  connection  with  the 
death  of  this  sinister  adventurer  was  whether  he  was 
to  be  allowed  a  Christian  burial.  He  had  been,  after 
all,  but  a  sectarian,  a  heretic,  the  follower  of  a  creed 
which  was  not  only  reproved  by  the  orthodox  church, 
but  also  prosecuted  by  the  law  of  the  land.  The  sy- 
nod was  called  upon  to  pronounce  itself  on  the  sub- 
ject when  the  advice  of  the  Metropolitan  Pitirim  of 
Petrograd,  one  of  the  personal  friends  of  Rasputin, 
at  last  prevailed,  and  he  was  buried  with  the  rites  of 
Holy  Church.  Some  of  the  ladies  who  had  been  the 
first  cause  of  his  having  obtained  the  importance 
which  grew  to  be  attached  to  his  strange  figure  did 
not  wait,  however,  for  the  permission  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical authorities,  and  a  few  hours  after  the  body  had 
been  discovered  Madame  W.,  one  of  the  most  hys- 
terical among  the  many  women  followers  of  Raspu- 
tin, caused  solemn  prayers  to  be  celebrated  in  her 
apartments  for  the  repose  of  his  soul.  She  went  to 
fetch  his  two  daughters,  girls  of  sixteen  and  fourteen 
years  of  age,  who  were  living  with  him  at  Petrogi'ad, 
taking  them  to  her  house  and  declaring  that  she  would 
henceforward  consider  and  treat  them  as  her  own 
children. 

But  apart  from  this  small  group  of  blind  admirers 
no  one  regretted  him,  not  even  the  crew  of  parasites 
that  had  surrounded  him  and  exploited  him.  By  one 
of  those  strange  anomalies,  such  as  can  only  take  place 
in  Russia,  Mr.  ^lana^sevitsch-Maniuloff,  who  had 
been  the  indirect  cause  of  his  death,  was  appointed. 


Rasputin  183 

together  with  other  secret  police  agents,  to  investigate 
the  details  connected  with  the  murder  of  his  former 
friend  and  patron.  Of  course,  the  inquest  led  to  noth- 
ing. No  one  had  any  wish  to  see  it  end  otherwise  than 
in  oblivion.  Every  political  party  in  Russiai  was 
agi'eed  in  thinking  that  with  the  disappearance  of  this 
dangerous  man  the  dynasty  had  won  a  battle  just  as 
important  for  the  safety  of  its  future  existence  as 
would  have  been  a  victory  on  the  battlefield  against 
a  foreign  foe.  The  names  of  the  murderers,  though 
pronounced  nowhere,  were  blessed  by  all  sincere  Rus- 
sian patriots,  who  cried  out  when  they  heard  that 
Rasputin  was  no  more,  "Thank  God  that  this  ad- 
venturer is  dead  and  long  live  the  Czar!" 


CHAPTER  IX 

Rasputin,  taken  individually,  did  not  deserve  any 
notice.  He  was  never  in  possession  of  the  influence 
which  was  attributed  to  him,  and  his  voice  was  never 
preponderant  in  the  councils  of  the  Czar.  It  served 
the  interests  of  those  whose  tool  he  had  become  to 
spread  the  notion  that  he  had  acquired  it,  and  that, 
thanks  to  the  religious  enthusiasm  which  he  had 
contrived  to  arouse  among  a  certain  small  circle  of 
influential  men  and  women,  he  had  installed  him- 
self in  the  confidence  of  his  Sovereign.  Unfortu- 
nately for  Russia,  these  people  not  only  had  accom- 
plices in  their  evil  deeds,  but  also  had  the  means  to 
spread  their  opinions  among  the  public  and  the  abil- 
ity to  make  these  opinions  penetrate  into  all  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  the  nation.  They  discredited  the  Im- 
perial family;  they  discredited  the  Government  of 
the  day;  they  discredited  the  monarch,  until  it  be- 
came at  last  a  political,  and  I  shall  even  say  a  na- 
tional, necessity  to  suppress  them,  together  with  the 
adventurer  whom  they  had  put  forward  and  thanks 
to  whom  they  had  been  able  to  play  unmolested  for 
so  many  years  the  most  nefarious  of  games. 

Unfortunately,  the  slaying  of  Rasputin  did  not  de- 
stroy the  persons  who  had  used  him.  It  did  not  put 
an  end  to  the  many  abuses  which  had  brought  Rus- 
sia to  the  sad  state  of  chaos  in  which  it  found  itself 

184 


Rasputin  185 

at  the  moment  of  its  great  trial.  The  man  himself 
was  but  an  ensign,  and  the  loss  of  an  ensign  does  not 
mean  that  the  regiment  that  carried  it  about  has 
shared  its  fate. 

Rasputin  was  the  last  representative  of  the  old 
regime.  His  appearance  on  the  horizon  of  Russian 
social  life  was  but  the  last  flicker  of  a  detestable  past. 
During  his  time  of  favour  and  of  success  the  two 
forces  that  struggled  for  supremacy  in  the  land  of 
his  birth  fought  their  last  battle,  in  which  he  was  the 
stake.  We  must  rejoice  that  it  was  not  the  force  which 
he  was  supposed  to  incarnate  in  his  enigmatical  and 
mysterious  person  that  remained  master  of  the  field. 
Whether  he  would  have  been  killed  under  different 
circumstances  is  a  question  to  which  it  would  be  very 
difficult  to  find  a  reply.  Most  probably  the  spirit 
of  mysticism  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  Slav 
character  would  have  prevented  even  his  worst  ene- 
mies, let  alone  his  simple  adversaries,  from  trying  to 
remove  him  from  the  position  into  which  he  had  been 
thrust.  They  would  most  likely  have  shrugged  their 
shoulder  and  waited  for  that  intervention  of  St.  Nic- 
olas, who,  according  to  Russian  traditions,  always  ar- 
rives at  the  right  moment,  to  put  straight  everything 
that  has  gone  wrong. 

The  peril  in  which  Russia  found  herself  placed 
gave  energy  even  to  those  to  whom  that  quality  had 
hitherto  been  unknown,  and  it  was  felt  everywhere 
that,  together  with  the  Fatherland,  the  Czar  ought  to 
be  saved  from  a  danger  of  which,  perhaps,  he  did  not 
himself  realise  the  real  importance.  Rasputin,  and 
especially  Rasputin's  followers,  had  worked  as  hard 


1 86  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

as  they  could  to  make  Russia's  Allies,  and  especially 
England,  unpopular  with  the  Russian  nation.  He 
paid  with  his  life  for  the  attempt,  and  one  can  only 
rejoice  that  such  was  the  case.  As  things  stand  at 
present,  it  is  principally  toward  Great  Britain  and 
America  that  Russia  must  look  for  its  salvation. 
What  I  am  writing  to-day  has  been  my  earnest  and 
deep  conviction  for  long  years,  and  I  have  preached 
it  not  only  since  the  beginning  of  this  war  in  all  the 
books  and  articles  which  I  have  written,  but  also  long 
before  any  one  ever  thought  or  suspected  that  the 
day  would  come  when  the  English  Union  Jack  and 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  would  float  beside  the  Russian 
flag  and  the  French  Tricolor  on  the  same  battlefields, 
united  against  one  common  enemy.  I  have  always 
considered  that  in  human  life,  as  well  as  in  the  exist- 
ence of  nations,  it  is  essential  to  recognise  the  superi- 
ority of  others  where  this  superiority  exists,  and  that 
true  civilisation  consists  in  assimilating  to  oneself  with 
gratitude  the  virtues  of  other  nations,  whose  example 
one  ought  to  follow  instead  of  trying  to  ridicule.  Rus- 
sia, with  all  its  vast  resources  and  with  its  immense 
territory,  would  do  well  to  imitate  England  and  the 
United  States  in  their  immense  work  of  culture  and 
to  call  the  latter  countries  to  her  help  in  developing 
her  own  national  existence  on  proper  and  useful 
bases.  In  doing  so  she  would  not  abase  herself;  she 
would  only  prove  that  she  was  great  enough  to  admire 
the  greatness  of  others. 

It  is  certain  that  if  Anglo-Saxon  influence  had 
been  so  dominant  in  Russia  in  the  past  as  it  is  to  be 
hoped  it  will  remain  in  the  future,  we  should  not  have 


Rasputin  187 

seen  occur  in  Petrograd  incidents  like  those  connected 
with  the  career  of  Rasputin.  We  should  not  have 
witnessed  all  these  perpetual  changes  of  Ministers, 
over  which  Germany  has  rejoiced  with  such  evident 
relish.  We  should  not  have  heard  people  defy  the 
authority  of  the  Czar,  as  unfortunately  has  been  the 
case. 

We  former  monarchists,  who  have  been  brought 
up  in  the  old  traditions  of  loyalty  to  bygone  days, 
have  often  been  accused  by  this  crew  of  adventurers 
of  harbouring  revolutionary  ideas.  They  have  re- 
proached us  with  the  spirit  of  criticism  that  has  some- 
times induced  and  prompted  us  to  speak  out  what  we 
thought  and  to  lay  blame  where  blame  was  due;  to 
criticise  where  criticism  was  almost  a  national  neces- 
sity. Time  shall  prove  whether  we  have  been  mis- 
taken. It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  as  English 
ideals  and  English  respect  for  individual  liberty  and 
individual  opinions  become  more  and  more  familiar 
to  Russians  and  penetrate  into  the  Russian  mind,  the 
public,  will  acknowledge  that  we  have  not  been  so 
very  wrong  when  we  have  raised  our  voices  against 
the  importance  which  individuals  such  as  Rasputin 
have  been  allowed  to  take  in  our  society  and  in  our 
governmental  circles,  and  against  this  corrupt  system 
of  administration,  which,  thanks  to  its  crawling,  flat- 
tering propensities,  caused  our  people  to  kneel  at  his 
feet  with  the  idea  that  by  doing  so  they  were  pleas- 
ing the  higher  authorities,  who  most  of  the  time  knew 
nothing  about  the  developments  for  which  this  in- 
trigue was  responsible.  Russia  has  still  something 
oriental  about  her,  and  in  some  re'spects  she  resembles 


i88  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  Greek  empire  which  fell  under  the  blows  dealt  at 
it  by  the  power  of  Islam.  It  needs  new  life  and  new 
blood  in  its  veins.  It  requires  the  support  of  this 
strong,  earnest  British  civilisation,  which  is,  perhaps, 
the  most  beautiful  the  world  has  ever  known. 

I  have  always  been  accused  of  being  too  pro-Eng- 
lish in  my  ideas  and  opinions.  If  being  pro-English 
means  the  wish  to  see  my  country  freed  from  the 
abuses,  the  existence  of  which  has  prevented  her  from 
developing  herself  on  the  road  of  a  progress  embodied 
in  the  respect  of  the  individual,  together  with  the  in- 
stitutions that  rule  him,  such  as  Great  Britain  has 
known  for  so  many  centuries,  then  I  will  willingly 
confess  it,  I  am  pro-English.  I  feel  sure  that  all 
good  Russians  share  my  feelings.  We  have  had 
enough  of  the  Gennan  Kultur  and  of  German  in- 
trigues. They  it  is  that  have  brought  my  beloved  Fath- 
erland to  the  brink  of  ruin.  The  whole  sad  incident 
of  Rasputin's  rise  and  fall  has  been  the  result  of  Ger- 
man interference,  and  it  would  never  have  assumed 
the  proportions  to  which  it  rose  if  the  German  press 
had  not  exaggerated  it  and  German  spies  spoken 
about  it,  not  only  abroad,  but  also  in  Russia  itself. 

When  thinking  about  this  story,  which  savours  in 
some  of  its  details  of  superstitions  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
one  must  always  remember  what  I  said  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  sketch  of  the  career  of  a  man  whom  cir- 
cumstances and  the  hatred  of  our  enemies  transformed 
into  a  kind  of  monster  devouring  all  that  it  touched. 
This  fact  is  that  Russia  is  still  the  land  of  many  sur- 
prises, because  of  its  tendency  toward  mysticism,  al- 
ways so  strong  in  all  the  Slav  races.     Before  Ras- 


Rasputin  189 

putin  appeared  there  had  been  other  sectarians  who 
had  drawn  thousands  of  men  and  women  around  them 
and  who  had  inspired  crowds  with  feelings  of  fanati- 
cism in  no  wise  different  from  the  ones  Avhich  the  mod- 
ern "Prophet,"  as  some  called  him,  the  modern  Cag- 
liostro,  as  others  had  nicknamed  him,  had  evoked  in 
the  breasts  of  the  simple-minded  people  whose  confi- 
dence he  had  abused  and  whose  spirit  of  superstition 
he  had  impressed.  But  these  had  remained  strictly 
in  the  field  of  religion  and  had  not  meddled  with 
any  other  questions.  They  had  grouped  around 
them  only  persons  convinced  of  the  truth  of  their 
teachings,  while  Rasputin  had  gathered  about  him 
men  determined  to  use  him  for  the  benefit  of  their 
money-seeking,  money-grubbing  schemes;  men  who 
saw  in  the  misfortunes  that  had  fallen  upon  their 
Fatherland  only  the  possibility  to  enrich  themselves 
at  her  expense.  They  would  not  have  sacrificed  the 
smallest  things  for  her  welfare;  far  less  would  they 
have  given  up  the  chance  to  add  to  the  ill-gotten  gains 
they  were  daily  accumulating.  .Without  those  per- 
sons the  whole  story  of  Kasputin  would  have  ended  in 
ridicule.  Thanks  to  them  and  to  their  rapacity,  it 
finished  in  blood 

It  was,  after  all,  the  aristocracy  that  finally  got 
rid  of  Rasputin,  perliaps  to  the  great  relief  of  many 
persons  who  out  of  weakness,  or  let  us  say  kindness, 
had  hesitated  before  taking  the  strong  measure  of 
sending  him  away  where  it  would  have  been  diffi- 
cult for  him  to  do  any  more  mischief.  And  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  his  removal  anywhere  than  to  a  place 
whence  there  existed  no  possibility  for  him  to  return 


190  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

would  have  stopped  the  evil  which  the  very  mention 
of  his  name  alone  was  sufficient  to  cause.  Credulous 
persons  exist  everywhere  and  will  always  exist ;  timor- 
ous ones  also  abound  in  the  world.  Even  if  Rasputin 
had  been  exiled  it  would  have  been  relatively  easy  for 
those  who  reaped  such  a  rich  harvest  out  of  the  blood 
and  the  tears  of  the  whole  Russian  nation  to  attribute 
to  him  powers  which  he  did  not  possess,  to  threaten 
with  his  vengeance  the  persons  who  might  refuse  to 
lend  themselves  to  their  dirty  schemes.  He  would 
have  been  a  perpetual  menace  suspended  over  the 
heads  of  those  who  would  have  tried  to  rebel  against 
the  directions  issued  by  the  enterprising  scoundrels 
who  abused  the  prestige  which  his  so-called  holiness 
had  won  for  a  man  who  in  other  times  and  in  another 
country  would  not  have  arrested  for  a  single  moment 
the  attention  of  any  one,  let  alone  the  crowds. 

Rasputin  is  dead !  Let  us  hope  that  his  former  sup- 
porters have  lost,  together  with  him,  their  audacity 
and  their  power  of  doing  mischief.  But  to  say  that 
he  was  ever  a  paramount  strength  in  Russian  politics 
is  an  error  which  I  have  tried  to  correct  as  far  as  lay 
within  my  power.  Rasputin's  story  is  simpler  than 
many  persons  think,  and  perhaps  the  best  explana- 
tion that  can  be  given  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  the  Book 
of  Esther  in  the  Bible,  a  careful  perusal  of  which  is 
recommended  to  those  who  are  interested  in  the  char- 
acter of  Rasputin. 


PART  II 
THE  GREAT  REVOLUTION 


CHAPTER  I 

On  the  15th  day  of  May,  1896,  Moscow  was  cele- 
brating the  Coronation  of  the  Czar  Nicholas  II.  of 
Russia.  In  the  large  courtyard  inside  the  Kremlin, 
an  immense  crowd  was  gathered,  awaiting  the  mo- 
ment when  the  Sovereign  together  with  his  Consort 
would  come  out  of  the  Cathedral  of  the  Assumption, 
to  make  the  customary  round  of  the  different  shrines 
and  churches,  which  according  to  the  ancient  custom, 
they  had  to  visit  after  they  had  assumed  the  old  Crown 
of  the  Russian  Autocrats.  Among  this  crowd,  there 
were  persons  who  remembered  having  witnessed  the 
same  kind  of  ceremony  thirteen  years  before,  when 
Alexander  III.  had  been  standing  in  his  son's  place. 
What  a  splendid  apparition  it  had  been  that  of  this 
Czar,  gigantic  in  stature,  whose  quiet  and  strong  fea- 
tures seemed  in  their  placidity  to  be  a  true  person- 
ification of  the  might  of  that  Empire  at  the  head  of 
which  he  stood.  One  had  hoped  at  that  time,  that  he 
would  preside  over  the  destinies  of  his  Realm  for  long 
years  to  come,  and  no  one  had  given  a  thought  to  the 
possibility  that  he  would  so  soon  be  lying  in  his  cof- 
fin. Now  it  was  with  mixed  feelings  of  pity,  combined 
with  a  sympathy  which  already  was  no  longer  so 
strong  as  it  had  been  when  he  had  ascended  the  throne, 
that  all  were  awaiting  the  new  Monarch,  who  had  be- 
come in  his  turn  the  chief  of  the  old  House  of  Ro~ 

193 


194  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

manoff ,  so  that  when  the  golden  gates  of  the  Assump- 
tion were  thrown  open  to  give  passage  to  the  proces- 
sion which  was  escorting  Nicholas  II.  all  the  head,s 
of  the  numerous  people  gathered  in  honour  of  the  oc- 
casion, under  the  shade  of  the  ancient  belfrey  of  Ivan 
Weliky,  turned  with  an  anxious  curiosity  towards 
the  Sovereign  about  to  show  himself  for  the  first  time 
before  his  people,  in  the  full  pomp  of  his  Imperial 
dignity. 

What  did  one  see?  A  young  man  thin  and  slim, 
who  seemed  to  be  entirely  crushed  under  the  weight 
of  the  massive  crown  which  was  reposing  on  his 
head,  and  of  the  heavy  robe  of  cloth  of  gold,  lined 
with  ermine,  which  was  thrown  upon  his  shoulders. 
He  was  tottering  as  he  walked  along,  and  his  pale, 
tired  face,  together  with  his  uncertain  steps,  bore  no 
resemblance  whatever  to  the  firm  and  superb  coun- 
tenance of  his  father  thirteen  years  before.  As  he 
reached  the  door  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Archan- 
gels, one  noticed  that  he  suddenly  stopped,  as  if  un- 
able to  proceed  any  further,  completely  worn  out  by 
the  fatigue  of  the  long  ceremonj^  that  had  come  to  an 
end  a  few  moments  before,  and  the  hand  which  was 
holding  the  sceptre,  enriched  with  precious  stones, 
which  the  INIetropolitan  of  Moscow  had  just  handed 
to  him,  dropped  down  at  his  side,  whilst  the  symbol  of 
might  and  of  power  which  it  was  holding,  escaped 
from  its  grasp.  Chamberlains  and  lords  in  waiting 
hastened  to  pick  it  up,  and  the  crowd  never  noticed 
what  had  occurred,  but  those  who  had  witnessed  the 
incident,  were  deeply  impressed  by  it,  and  diiferent 
rumours  began  to  circulate  in  regard  to  it,  rumours 


The  Great  Revolution  195 

which  would  have  it  that  it  was  a  bad  omen,  whilst 
persons  well  up  in  the  study  of  history,  and  especially 
in  that  of  foreign  countries  tried  to  find  an  analogy 
between  it,  and  the  remark  made  by  Louis  XVI.  on 
the  daj^  of  his  Coronation  at  Rheims,  when  he  had 
complained  that  his  crown  was  hurting  him,  and  felt 
too  heavy  for  his  head. 

A  few  days  later  there  happened  another  event, 
which  reminded  one  of  a  similar  coincidence  between 
the  life  of  the  unfortunate  King  whose  head  was  to 
fall  on  the  scaffold  of  the  Champs  Elysees,  and  that 
of  Nicholas  II.  It  occurred  during  the  popular  feast 
which  is  always  given  in  Moscow  after  the  Corona- 
tion of  a  Czar.  A  crowd  amounting  to  several  thou- 
sands of  men  and  women,  some  say  three  hundred 
thousand,  had  gathered  together  on  a  field  known  by 
the  name  of  Khodinka  Plain,  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  town,  to  be  present  at  it,  when  sud- 
denly a  panic  which  was  never  accounted  for  nor  ex- 
plained, seized  this  multitude,  and  about  twenty  thou- 
sand human  creatures  were  crushed  to  death  in  the 
short  space  of  a  few  minutes.  The  emotion  produced 
by  this  disaster  among  all  the  different  classes  of 
society  was  very  deep  and  terrible.  The  only  person 
who  accepted  it  with  calm  and  even  with  indifference, 
if  the  reader  will  forgive  me  for  this  expression,  was 
the  Czar  himself,  who,  however,  and  this  is  a  justice 
which  I  must  render  to  him,  only  heard  much  later 
the  whole  extent  of  the  disaster,  but  who  at  the  same 
time,  did  not  try  to  learn  anything  definite  about  it, 
on  the  day  when  it  took  place,  and  who,  under  the 
direct  influence  of  his  Consort,  gave  directions  to 


196  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

reply  to  the  French  Ambassador,  the  Comte  de 
Montebello,  who  had  enquired  whether  he  ought  to 
postpone  the  ball  he  was  giving  that  same  night,  that 
"he  did  not  see  any  necessity  for  doing  so." 

This  answer  became  known  at  once,  and  it  traced 
between  the  Monarch  and  his  subjects  one  of  these 
white  lines  which  in  a  tennis  ground  marks  the  antag- 
onistic camps,  and  out  of  two  players  makes  two  ene- 
mies .  .  .  and  this  line  went  on  getting  wider  and 
wider  as  time  went  on.  It  still  existed  when  Nicholas 
II.  abdicated,  but  it  had  then  become  an  abyss. 

In  general  there  is  nothing  sadder  in  the  world 
than  a  misunderstanding  between  two  people  both 
possessed  of  good  intentions  towards  each  other.  It 
is  something  worse  than  a  discussion,  worse  than 
a  quarrel,  and  even  worse  than  hatred,  because  it  is 
the  only  thing  which  sound  reasoning  cannot  con- 
quer, and  which  is  bound  to  go  on  aggravating  itself 
from  day  to  day.  How  much  worse  therefore  is  a 
thing  of  the  kind  when  it  has  established  itself  be- 
tween a  nation  and  those  who  rule  it.  The  great,  the 
supreme  misfortune  of  Nicholas  II.  consisted  in  the 
fact  that  he  never  could  understand  his  people  or 
their  wants,  whilst  Russia  on  the  other  hand  was, 
through  circumstances  independent  of  its  will, 
brought  to  distrust  the  real  feelings  harboured  by  the 
Czar  in  regard  to  its  welfare,  and  to  indulge  in  com- 
parisons which  certainly  were  not  to  his  advantage, 
between  him  and  the  Sovereign  to  whom  he  had  suc- 
ceeded, who  had  possessed  the  full  confidence  of  his 
subjects. 

This  fatality  which  has  dogged  all  the  footsteps  of 


The  Great  Revolution  197 

the  Emperor  who  abdicated  a  year  ago,  from  the 
very  first  moment  that  lie  had  ascended  his  Throne, 
can  be  partly  attributed  to  the  defective  education 
which  he  had  received,  together  with  the  deplorable 
weakness  of  his  character;  and  partly  to  the  state 
of  absolute  subjection  in  which  he  had  been  kept 
first  by  his  father,  during  the  whole  time  of  the  lat- 
ter's  life,  and  later  on  by  his  wife,  together  with  the 
complete  ignorance  in  which  he  remained  in  regard 
to  the  wants,  the  aspirations,  needs  and  character  of 
his  people.  He  was  a  despot  by  temperament,  per- 
haps because  he  had  never  seen  anything  else  but  des- 
potism around  him,  and  perhaps  because  he  had  got  a 
mistaken  idea  in  regard  to  the  duties  which  devolved 
upon  him.  He  had  always  been  told  that  he  ought 
to  uphold  intact  the  principle  of  autocracy,  thanks  to 
which  his  predecessors  had  maintained  themselves  up- 
on the  throne.  He  had  seen  Alexander  III.  adopt 
him  with  these  principles  with  success,  and  he  had 
forgotten,  or  rather  he  had  never  known,  that  in  or- 
der to  be  a  successful  autocrat,  one  must  neither  prove 
oneself  a  tyrant,  nor  an  oppressor  of  people's  con- 
sciences and  opinions.  His  first  steps  as  a  Sovereign 
had  hurt  all  the  feelings  of  loyalty  of  his  subjects. 
Among  the  many  addresses  of  congratulation  that 
had  been  presented  to  him  on  the  occasion  of  his  mar- 
riage and  of  his  accession  to  the  Throne,  there  had 
been  one  from  the  Zemstvo  or  local  assembly  of  the 
government  of  Tver,  a  town  which  w^as  known  to  be 
very  liberal  in  its  opinions,  in  which  was  expressed  the 
hope  that  the  Monarch  would  try  to  govern  his  people 
with  the  help  and  with  the  co-operation  of  these  same 


198  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Zemstvos  or  local  assemblies,  the  aim  of  which  was  the 
improvement  of  the  local  conditions  of  existence  of 
the  population  of  the  different  governments  or  prov- 
inces of  the  Russian  Empire.  There  was  absolutely 
nothing  that  was  revolutionary  in  this  address.  Un- 
fortunately there  happened  to  be  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  young  Empress  a  person  whose  influence  had  al- 
ways been  perniciously  exercised,  whenever  it  had 
manifested  itself:  the  Princess  Galitzyne,  her  Mis- 
tress of  the  Robes.  Out  of  a  feeling  of  personal 
dislike,  or  rather  hatred,  against  one  of  the  signatories 
of  this  document,  which,  on  account  of  the  conse- 
quences that  followed  upon  its  composition,  became 
historical,  Princess  Galitzyne  explained  to  the  Sov- 
ereign at  the  head  of  whose  household  she  stood,  that 
this  appeal  in  favour  of  a  liberal  system  of  govern- 
ment ought  to  be  discouraged,  if  not  crushed,  at  once. 
Alexandra  Feodorovna  was  then  beginning  to  ac- 
quire the  absolute  power  over  her  consort's  mind, 
which  she  was  never  to  lose  in  the  future,  and  she 
spoke  to  him  of  the  matter  suggested  by  the  Princess, 
on  the  very  day  that  different  deputations,  coming 
from  all  parts  of  Russia  to  express  their  good  wishes 
to  the  young  Imperial  couple,  were  about  to  be  re- 
ceived by  them  in  the  Winter  Palace. 

Nicholas  II.  has  never  in  his  whole  life  had  an  opin- 
ion of  his  own,  but  he  has  shown  himself  enthusiastic 
for  all  those  that  have  been  suggested  to  him.  He 
promised  his  wife  "to  say  something,"  which  would 
put  into  their  proper  place  the  people  daring  enough 
to  dream  of  anything  likely  to  diminish  his  own  power 
or  prerogatives.    He  forgot,  however,  one  thing,  per- 


The  Great  Revolution  199 

haps  the  most  important  one,  and  that  was  that  these 
persons  he  was  ahout  to  see,  were  not  at  all  those  who 
had  signed  the  unlucky  address,  of  which  it  would 
have  been  far  better  for  everybody  to  forget  the  text 
as  soon  as  possible.  The  result  of  this  first  inter- 
vention of  the  Empress  in  affairs  of  State  which  did 
not  concern  her  is  but  too  well  known.  The  Czar 
instead  of  thanking  the  people  who  had  come  to  lay 
at  his  feet  the  expression  of  theu'  loyalty,  declared  to 
them  that  they  ought  never  to  "indulge  in  any  sense- 
less *dreams.'  "  The  words  were  repeated  every- 
where, and  ran  from  mouth  to  mouth  in  the  whole  of 
Russia.  They  inflicted  on  the  young  popularity  of 
Nicholas  II.  a  blow  from  the  effects  of  which  it  never 
recovered. 

This  was  the  prologue  of  the  tragedy  which  came 
to  an  end,  if  it  has  done  so,  with  the  signature  of  the 
Manifesto  of  Pskov.  After  this  rise  of  the  curtain 
was  to  begin  a  drama,  all  the  different  acts  of  which 
appear  to  us  shrouded  in  bloody  clouds. 

One  questions  at  present  whether  this  drama  could 
have  had  a  different  end  from  the  one  which  we  are 
witnessing,  or  whether  the  historical  evolution  that 
has  been  accomplished  in  the  course  of  the  last  few 
months  in  Russia  could  have  been  avoided,  or  at 
least  otherwise  directed.  Personally  I  believe  it  to 
have  been  unavoidable,  but  it  could  have  unfurled 
itself  with  dignity,  if  the  Crown  had  consented  to 
concessions  which  would  have  taken  nothing  away 
from  its  greatness  or  importance,  but  which  would  on 
the  contrary  have  lent  to  it  a  new  lustre.  In  any  case 
it  would  have  been  possible  for  autocracy  to  die,  or 


200  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

better  still,  to  live  otherwise.  No  matter  what  re- 
proaches could  have  been  addressed  to  the  Roman- 
offs in  the  past,  no  matter  the  injustices  and  the  cru- 
elties they  had  committed  in  the  course  of  their  fam- 
ily history,  there  is  one  thing  which  cannot  be  taken 
away  from  them,  and  that  is  that  they  have  all  of 
them  been  strong  and  courageous  men,  incapable  of 
trembling  before  the  attacks  of  any  enemies,  however 
powerful,  or  before  the  fury  of  a  revolted  mob. 
Nicholas  II.  was  the  first  one  among  them  who  proved 
himself  unable  to  inspire  either  love  or  hatred  in  his 
subjects,  and  for  whom  they  held  nothing  but  con- 
tempt, because  they  very  quickly  grasped  the  fact 
that  he  would  never  be  able  to  give  to  himself  or  to 
others  an  account  of  the  position  he  stood  in,  or  to 
realise  the  tragedy  of  his  own  fate. 

People  who  knew  him  well  have  wondered  whether 
he  ever  understood  what  his  duty  really  meant.  I 
think,  however,  from  the  personal  knowledge  which  I 
have  of  his  character,  that  in  a  certain  way  he  wished 
to  do  what  was  right,  but  I  doubt  whether  he  knew 
the  responsibilities  of  his  position,  and  the  fact  that 
he  ought  to  put  the  interests  of  the  State  before  those 
of  his  own  family.  For  him  his  wife  and  children 
held  the  first  place,  and  were  the  first  objects  of  his 
consideration.  This  would  have  been  a  virtue  in  a  pri- 
vate person,  but  it  could  easily  assume  the  proportions 
of  a  crime  in  a  sovereign. 

His  father  had  left  to  him  a  splendid  inheritance, 
which  he  might  have  kept  intact  with  a  little  care, 
and  very  small  trouble.  Before  the  Japanese  war  it 
might  have  been  still  possible  for  him  to  rule  his 


The  Great  Revolution  201 

country  autocratically,  though  not  despotically;  but 
after  Moukhden  and  Tschousima,  and  especially  after 
the  revolution  which  followed  upon  these  two  catas- 
trophes, and  which  would  have  been  hardly  possible, 
had  they  not  occurred,  the  thing  became  more  diffi- 
cult, if  not  impossible,  because  the  Russian  nation  had 
begun  to  wonder  at  the  causes  that  had  brought  about 
these  terrible  disasters,  the  consequences  of  which  had 
been  the  loss  of  Russian  prestige  in  the  Far  East, 
and  even  in  Europe.  It  would,  however,  still  have 
been  possible  to  save  something  out  of  the  former 
form  of  government,  if  a  serious  and  honest  appeal 
had  been  made  to  the  nation  to  help  to  consolidate 
its  strength,  and  if  an  attempt  had  been  made  to 
modify  it  according  to  the  exigencies  of  the  times 
and  of  the  moment.  But  after  the  famous  day  which 
saw  rivers  of  blood  flow  in  the  streets  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, and  the  wholesale  slaying  of  thousands  of  inno- 
cent workmen,  whose  only  crime  had  consisted  in  wish- 
ing to  lay  their  grievances  before  their  Czar,  every 
attempt  to  keep  up  the  old  order  of  things  was  bound 
to  fail.  Something  else  had  to  be  tried  to  save  the 
dynasty  together  with  the  country,  but  not  the  grant- 
ing of  a  so-called  Constitution,  which  it  had  been  de- 
termined beforehand  to  leave  a  dead  letter.  If  on 
the  occasion  I  have  just  referred  to,  Nicholas  II.  had 
found  sufficient  courage  to  meet  his  people  face  to 
face,  and  to  speak  with  them  as  his  great  grandfather 
had  done  on  an  occasion  far  more  critical  even  than 
the  ones  which  prevailed  in  1905,  it  is  likely  that  the 
divorce  which  finally  separated  him  from  his  subjects 
would  never  have  taken  place.    But  he  went  to  Tsar- 


202  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

skoie  Selo  as  soon  as  he  heard  there  was  likely  to  be 
trouble  in  his  capital,  forgetting  everything  else  but 
his  own  personal  safety,  which,  by  the  way,  had  never 
been  seriously  threatened.  He  proved  himself  to  be  a 
coward,  and  cowardice  is  the  last  thing  which  a  nation 
forgives  in  those  who  rule  it.  The  Czar  lost  in  conse- 
quence of  his  conduct  every  prestige  he  had  left. 
And  he  also  lost  the  respect  of  Russia,  owing  to  the 
shameless  corruption  which  established  itself  every- 
where during  his  reign,  when  at  last  everything  un- 
der the  sun  could  be  bought  or  sold  in  the  country,  to 
begin  with,  a  Court  appointment,  and  to  end  with,  the 
highest  functions  in  the  State.  The  Emperor  was 
unable  to  refuse  anything  to  those  whom  he  liked,  and 
he  never  grasped  this  essential  fact,  that  when  one 
gives  too  easily  and  without  discernment,  it  inevitably 
follows  that  one  also  allows  people  to  take  what  per- 
haps one  would  never  have  granted,  had  one  thought 
about  it. 

Alexander  III.  had  been  just  as  generous  as  his  son 
showed  himself  to  be  later  on.  But  his  generosity  was 
only  exercised  in  regard  to  what  belonged  to  him  per- 
sonally, whilst  no  one  was  more  careful  than  this  sov- 
ereign of  the  public  exchequer.  He  had  seen  what 
corruption  meant  during  his  own  father's  reign,  when 
abuses  had  also  prevailed,  which  though  in  no  way 
comparable  to  those  that  established  themselves  to- 
wards the  close  of  the  one  which  has  come  to  an  end  a 
year  ago,  were  still  sufficiently  grave  and  serious 
to  cause  anxiety  to  a  Monarch  eager  and  anxious  for 
the  welfare  of  his  State.  He  therefore  had  applied 
himself  to  put  an  end  to  them,  and  knowing  as  he  did, 


The  Great  Revolution  203 

admirably  well  the  character  of  the  Russian  nation,  he 
took  up  morally  the  famous  stick  of  Peter  the  Great, 
with  which  he  dealt  at  times  most  severe  blows  to  those 
whom  he  believed  to  be  in  need  of  them.  The  result 
of  this  system  made  itself  felt  within  a  very  short  time, 
and  when  Alexander  III.  died,  the  old  custom  of  tak- 
ing bribes,  which  had  been  formerly  so  prevalent  in 
Russia,  had  nearly  died  out,  or  at  least  existed  upon 
such  a  small  scale  that  it  could  no  longer  do  any  harm. 
But  under  Nicholas  II.  the  old  evil  was  revived,  and 
finding  no  obstacle  in  its  path,  it  soon  assumed  most 
unheard  of  proportions,  and  became  at  last  a  regular 
institution.  Soon  everything  in  the  vast  Empire  of 
the  Czars  was  put  up  at  public  auction,  everything 
could  be  purchased  or  sold,  and  everything  became 
buyable,  provided  a  sufficient  price  was  offered  for  it. 
The  Emperor  knew  nothing,  and  saw  nothing,  and 
no  one  dared  to  tell  him  anything,  whilst  many  un- 
scrupulous persons  found  it  to  their  advantage  to 
profit  by  the  changes  that  had  taken  place  to  enrich 
themselves  quickly  and  with  very  little  trouble.  The 
whole  country  was  seized  with  a  perfect  fever  of  spec- 
ulation, and  with  the  frantic  desire  to  win  millions  as 
rapidly  as  possible.  When  I  say  the  whole  country, 
this  is  not  quite  exact,  because  it  was  not  the  country, 
but  only  some  people  in  it,  who,  thanks  to  the  position 
which  they  occupied,  or  to  their  relations  in  influen- 
tial circles,  found  themselves  able  to  take  a  part  in  this 
general  plundering.  The  Japanese  war  which  was  to 
have  such  a  sad  end,  was  entirely  brought  about 
through  certain  concessions  being  granted  by  the  Rus- 
sian government  on  the  River  Yalou  which  never  be- 


204  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

longed  to  the  Russian  State,  to  a  number  of  persons 
who  hoped  to  transform  them  into  shareholders'  com- 
panies, and  to  make  money  out  of  them.  They  had 
bribed  officials  who  persuaded  the  Emperor  to  sign 
the  decree  which  was  presented  to  him,  of  which  he 
failed  to  see  the  importance  or  the  meaning,  or  the 
strange  light  in  which  it  put  him,  to  distribute  thus 
what  he  did  not  possess,  and  what  had  still  to  be 
taken  away  from  the  Japanese  government  before  it 
could  be  disposed  of.  This  war,  one  cannot  suffi- 
ciently repeat  it,  was  brought  about  willingily  and 
knowingly,  by  people  who  saw  in  it  an  opportunity  to 
em-ich  themselves  at  the  expense  of  their  fatherland, 
thanks  to  the  ammunitions  and  provisions  they  would 
be  able  to  deliver  for  the  use  of  the  army  in  the  field, 
and  which  that  army  never  got  at  all.  The  system  of 
an  organised  plundering  which  in  the  present  war  has 
had  such  mournful  and  such  tragical  consequences, 
was  then  inaugurated  with  a  success  that  went  far 
beyond  the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  those  who 
indulged  in  it.  Huge  fortunes  were  made  in  the  space 
of  a  few  months  whilst  our  troops  were  in  want  of 
everything,  and  enduring  cold,  hunger  and  thirst. 
The  Czar  remained  in  utter  ignorance  of  all  that  was 
being  done  in  his  name.  He  never  suspected  any- 
thing. But  his  jDcople  never  forgave  him  for  this  in- 
difference to  its  fate.    One  sees  it  to-day. 

One  wonders  what  was  in  the  mind  of  this  Sover- 
eign, who  having  ascended  the  throne  amidst  so  many 
sympathies,  had  contrived  to  lose  them  within  the 
space  of  a  few  months!  Did  he  ever  realise  the  im- 
portance of  the  ocean  of  unpopularity  which  was  sub- 


The  Great  Revolution  205 

merging  him  slowly,  and  the  waves  of  which  were  ris- 
ing higher  and  higher,  with  each  day  that  passed? 
One  would  like  to  know  it  now,  when  one  tries  to  go 
back  to  the  sources  of  the  tragedy  to  which  he  has  fal- 
len a  victim.  Or  was  his  character  so  shallow  and  so 
careless,  that  he  only  looked  at  the  outside  of  things, 
and  could  not  appreciate  their  real  depth?  He  was 
of  a  very  reticent  nature  and  disposition,  and  rarely 
confided  in  any  one,  not  even  in  his  wife,  whose  in- 
spiration and  advice  he  was  nevertheless  to  follow 
so  blindly.  And  the  tastes  for  solitude  which  he  was 
to  develop  so  strongly  later  on  soon  brought  him  to 
lead  a  kind  of  existence  that  can  be  compared  only 
to  that  of  the  JMikado  of  Japan,  before  the  reforms 
that  were  to  change  everything  in  that  country. 

That  he  was  surrounded  by  flatterers  goes  without 
saying,  but  he  could  nevertheless  have  manifested 
some  desire  to  learn  the  truth,  and  not  have  been  so 
continually  busy  with  the  exclusive  wish  to  maintain 
his  own  authority,  which  in  spite  of  his  efforts  to  the 
contrary,  no  one  in  the  whole  of  Russia  either  re- 
spected or  feared.  All  the  concessions  which  politi- 
cally were  squeezed  out  of  him,  came  too  late,  or  else 
were  accepted  by  him  at  the  wrong  time.  Even  when 
he  seemed  in  the  eyes  of  the  public  to  be  following 
the  advice  which  was  given  to  him  by  disinterested 
and  honest  persons,  he  tried  in  an  underhand  way  to 
counteract  the  efficacy  of  the  measures  he  had  himself 
ordered  to  be  taken,  and  whenever  he  resigned  him- 
self to  the  inevitable,  he  did  not  understand  the  reason 
why  he  was  so  doing. 

With  it  all  he  was  in  some  respects  an  intelligent 


2o6  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

man.  He  cared  for  good  reading,  for  arts,  for  music, 
for  all  the  things  which  help  to  make  out  of  life  a 
pleasant  thing  for  irresponsible  individuals.  He  was 
fond  of  study,  very  painstaking,  but  ignorant,  and 
doing  all  that  was  required  of  him,  in  an  almost  auto- 
matic manner;  kind,  it  is  true,  but  incapable  of  com- 
ing to  any  serious  resolution  or  determination  of  his 
own  accord;  devoid  of  political  sense,  occasionally 
most  obstinate,  and,  unfortunately  for  him  as  well  as 
for  his  country  and  dynasty,  he  had  the  misfortune  in 
all  the  circumstances  when  a  sacrifice  of  some  fraction 
of  his  Imperial  prerogatives  came  into  question,  not 
to  be  able  to  understand  either  his  people  or  the  times 
he  was  living  in,  and  to  have  no  thought  for  anything 
else  but  the  safety  of  his  own  family,  forgetting 
utterly  that  his  country  and  its  welfare  ought  to  have 
come  before  them. 

When  he  resigned  himself  to  grant  that  shadow  of 
a  constitution,  the  advent  of  which  was  hailed  with 
such  enthusiasm  by  the  whole  of  Russia,  he  might  still, 
had  he  liked,  have  regained  some  part  at  least,  of  his 
lost  popularity.  His  personal  prestige,  or  rather  that 
of  the  position  he  stood  in,  was  still  so  great  among 
the  nation,  that  it  would  have  felt  gratitude  toward 
him,  for  every  favour  he  would  have  chosen  to  confer 
upon  it,  if  only  he  had  not  taken  back  all  that  he  had 
given,  almost  immediately  after  he  had  awarded  it. 
It  is  quite  certain  that  the  first  Duma  committed 
many  errors,  but  it  should  have  been  remembered  that 
no  human  achievement  can  reach  perfection  at  once; 
and  the  excitement  and  effervescence  that  had  fol- 
lowed upon  the  opening  of  the  first  Russian  Parlia- 


The  Great  Revolution  207 

ment  ought  to  have  been  allowed  to  cool  down,  and 
been  given  sufficient  time  to  make  an  honest  trial  of 
its  rights  and  privileges.  At  the  period  I  am  refer- 
ring to,  and  this  notwithstanding  all  that  was  said  to 
the  contrary,  a  revolution  like  the  one  which  took 
place  the  other  day,  would  have  been  an  impossible 
thing,  because  the  Sovereign  could  still  rely  upon  the 
army,  and  it  would  have  been  better  for  him  had  he 
always  leant  upon  it  rather  than  upon  the  low  crowd 
of  state  functionaries  with  which  he  was  exclusively 
surrounded  and  out  of  which  his  wife  had  picked  her 
favourites.  He  might  have  checked  the  then  rising 
tide  of  radicalism  with  which  he  found  himself  unable 
to  cope  later  on,  and  in  the  strength  of  which  he  was 
to  remain  to  the  end  mistaken,  because  he  dreaded  it 
when  it  was  not  dangerous,  and  imagined  that  he  had 
subdued  it,  at  the  very  moment  when  it  had  become, 
thanks  to  his  own  errors,  and  to  his  own  faults,  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  carry  him  away  on  its  waves. 

Such  a  thorough  weakness  of  character  was  bound 
to  bring  about  the  most  serious  consequences,  and 
these  did  not  fail  to  produce  themselves.  If  Nicholas 
II.  had  had  beside  him  a  wife  able  to  lead  him,  to  ad- 
vise him,  to  open  his  eyes  which  perhaps  he  did  not 
quite  close,  but  which  he  was  never  to  succeed  in  keep- 
ing sufficiently  open,  and  to  show  him  not  only  the 
perils  which  surrounded  him  (these  she  never  forgot 
to  point  out  to  him  in  an  exaggerated  manner),  but 
also  to  bring  to  his  notice  his  duties  towards  his  sub- 
jects, he  might  have  become  a  Sovereign  like  any 
other,  neither  better  nor  worse,  insignificant  perhaps, 
but  never  really  dangerous  for  his  country  or  for  his 


2o8  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

dynasty.  Even  if  that  wife  he  was  so  devoted  to  had 
wished  not  to  identify  herself  with  State  affairs,  had 
kept  outside  them,  and  not  surrounded  herself  with 
people  lost  to  every  sense  of  shame,  he  might  have 
come  out  of  the  numerous  difficulties  with  which 
he  found  himself  confronted,  if  not  exactly  to  his 
honour  and  credit,  at  least  without  losing  too  much  of 
his  prestige.  But  Alexandra  Feodorovna  was  the 
fatal  and  dissolving  element  which  destroyed,  thanks 
to  her  attitude  and  conduct,  every  scrap  of  respect  for 
the  Sovereign,  and  who  inspired  in  the  whole  of  the 
nation  the  desire  to  get  rid  of  an  authority  in  which 
it  believed  no  longer,  and  in  which  it  saw  only  an  ob- 
stacle in  the  way  of  its  development  and  of  its  histori- 
cal evolution.  The  Empress  understood  even  less 
than  her  husband  the  state  of  mind  of  his  subjects ;  she 
raised  between  him  and  them  a  barrier  which  nothing 
could  destroy,  because  it  was  made  out  of  the  con- 
tempt which  they  both  inspired  in  the  whole  of  Russia. 
There  is  one  curious  thing  contrasting  with  the 
facility  with  which  Nicholas  II.  accepted  the  opinions 
of  others,  and  with  his  total  absence  of  personal  ini- 
tiative ;  and  that  is  the  persistence  with  which  he  main- 
tained himself  during  the  whole  time  that  his  reign 
lasted,  in  one  line  of  conduct  which  never  varied  in 
regard  to  the  determination  to  govern  his  country  in 
a  despotic  sense,  and  which  was  the  more  singular  that 
he  never  knew  the  meaning  of  real  authority.  He  al- 
ways kept  listening  to  those  who  represented  to  him 
that  the  first  duty  of  a  Russian  Emperor  consisted  in 
keeping  up  the  prestige  of  the  police  before  the  mass 
of  the  citizens.    Under  no  reign  in  Russia,  if  we  ex- 


The  Great  Revolution  209 

cept  the  dark  period  of  the  Opritschnikys  under  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  did  the  police  play  such  an  important 
part  in  public  life,  or  become  guilty  of  more  abuses 
and  of  more  malversations  of  every  kind.  I  will  not 
mention  here  the  horrors  which  took  place  during  and 
after  the  revolution  of  1905,  when  no  one  felt  secure 
against  an  anonymous  denunciation,  the  consequences 
of  which  might  be  that  one  saw  oneself  exiled  in  Si- 
beria, simply  because  one  had  not  sufficiently  bribed 
the  police  officer  in  charge  of  the  district  where  one 
lived ;  but  later  on,  even  after  things  had  calmed  down, 
the  might  of  what  was  called  the  Okhrana,  remained 
just  as  formidable  as  it  had  been  before.  Literally 
no  one  could  feel  safe  under  this  so-called  liberal  Czar, 
whilst  under  the  reign  of  his  father  everybody  pos- 
sessed of  a  good  and  clear  conscience  could  rest  peace- 
fully in  the  certitude  that  neither  the  security  of  his 
domicile  or  his  personal  safety  would  ever  be  threat- 
ened or  infringed  upon  by  the  caprice  of  this  secret 
power  called  by  the  vague  name  of  "administration." 
But  after  all  was  he  really  liberal,  this  Czar  who 
had  so  little  known  or  understood  how  to  endear 
himself  to  his  subjects,  or  did  he  merely  say  that 
such  was  the  case,  in  order  to  dissimulate  despotic 
leanings  which  were  the  more  dangerous  that  they  ex- 
ercised themselves  without  any  judgment  or  without 
any  justification  for  their  explosion?  A  considerable 
number  of  persons  have  wondered  about  it,  and  have 
found  themselves  unable  to  solve  this  riddle.  To  hear 
him  speak,  one  would  have  thought  that  such  was  the 
case,  whilst  it  was  hardly  possible  to  talk  with  him 
for  any  length  of  time,  without  finding  him  a  sympa- 


210  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

thetic,  kind  personality,  curious  mixture  of  totally 
different  elements  in  a  character  that  was  chiefly  re- 
markable for  its  weakness.  One  could  like  him,  one 
could  even  admire  some  of  the  qualities  which  he  un- 
doubtedly possessed,  but  it  was  utterly  impossible  to 
respect  in  him  the  Monarch,  or  to  esteem  the  man,  so 
strange  did  his  conduct  sometimes  appear,  a  conduct 
which  finally  dragged  him  into  an  abyss,  together 
with  his  family  and  with  his  dynasty.  Physically,  he 
had  a  sad  and  kind  face,  affectionate  and  clear  blue 
eyes,  a  charming  voice,  much  affability  in  his  man- 
ners; a  wonderfully  bffrht  smile,  reminding  one  of 
his  mother's,  a  most  cordial  manner  of  shaking  hands 
that  went  straight  to  the  heart  and  made  one  suspect 
a  lot  of  things  which  in  reaUty  did  not  exist ;  a  rapid 
and  quick  walk,  a  certain  hesitation  in  his  speech,  and 
in  the  expression  of  his  face  at  times;  such  was  the 
man.  Morally,  he  was  possessed  of  honesty  of  pur- 
pose to  such  an  extent  that  he  could  realise  its  ab- 
sence in  others ;  he  had  no  will  of  any  kind,  but  a  good 
deal  of  obstinacy;  principles  which  were  always  for- 
gotten when  they  interposed  themselves  between  his 
personal  welfare  and  his  duty;  no  sense  of  responsi- 
bility, but  a  very  exalted  opinion  of  his  own  rights, 
and  especially  of  his  might ;  the  conviction  that  autoc- 
racy ought  to  be  maintained  at  any  cost,  and  simul- 
taneously the  sincere  desire,  during  a  short  while,  to 
govern  according  to  the  change  of  system  to  which 
he  had  been  compelled  to  submit,  more  by  the  force 
of  things  and  of  events,  than  through  his  personal 
opinions;  absolutely  no  consciousness  of  the  great 
events  with  which  he  found  himself  mixed  up,  or  of 


The  Great  Revolution  21 1 

the  wants  of  the  country  over  which  he  ruled ;  no  con- 
ception of  the  aims  he  ought  to  have  had  in  view;  no 
real  sympathy  for  his  people,  but  a  vague  wish  to 
help  them;  an  unacknowledged  dread  of  finding  him- 
self thrown  into  any  intimate  contact  with  the  mob, 
combined  with  the  hope  that  this  feeling  would  not 
be  noticed  by  the  public  at  large;  far  too  much  con- 
fidence in  incapable  advisers;  an  exaggerated  mis- 
trust of  the  persons  courageous  enough  to  tell  him 
the  truth,  an  absolute  incapacity  to  resist  bad  influ- 
ences ;  sometimes  considerable  dignity,  and  often  use- 
less haughtiness;  a  good  deal  of  superstition  com- 
bined with  religion;  a  deep  conviction  that  his  own 
person  was  something  so  sacred  that  though  it  might 
come  to  be  attacked  and  criticised,  yet  nobody  would 
be  daring  enough  to  lay  a  sacrilegious  hand  upon  it; 
a  complete  incapability  of  making  any  distinction  be- 
tween his  friends  and  his  foes,  and  such  a  persuasive 
manner  that  no  one  could  ever  contradict  or  resist 
him,  so  that  the  Revolution  in  which  he  lost  his  Crown 
must  have  surprised  him  to  the  extent  of  paralysing 
all  his  faculties  of  realising  its  importance  and  its 
extent;  such  was  the  Sovereign. 


CHAPTER  II 

By  the  side  of  this  Monarch  in  whom  his  subjects 
at  last  lost  every  vestige  of  confidence,  there  stood  a 
sinister  figure,  the  bad  genius  of  a  reign  that  would 
most  probably  have  been  far  more  peaceful  if  it  had 
not  been  there:  the  figure  of  his  wife,  the  Empress 
Alexandra  Feodorovna,  "the  German,"  as  she  had 
been  called  even  long  before  the  present  war  broke 
out.  It  was  undoubtedly  to  her  that  were  due,  at 
least  to  a  considerable  extent,  the  various  misfortunes 
which  have  assailed  the  unfortunate  Nicholas  II., 
and  it  was  also  she,  who,  in  the  brief  space  of  a  few 
short  years,  discredited  him  together  with  the  throne 
to  which  he  had  raised  her.  It  was  she  who  destroyed 
all  the  prestige  which  the  Monarchy  had  retained  in 
Russia,  until  the  day  when  she  tarnished  it.  She  was 
another  Marie  Antoinette,  without  any  of  the  quali- 
ties, or  the  courage  that  had  distinguished  the  latter, 
who  had  become  the  object  of  the  hatred  and  furious 
dislike  of  her  subjects,  more  on  account  of  the  vices 
which  were  attributed  to  her,  than  of  those  which  she 
really  possessed.  In  regard  to  the  Consort  of  the 
Czar  Nicholas  II.,  it  was  just  the  contrary  that  oc- 
curred, because  the  general  public  never  became 
aware  of  all  the  strange  details  concerning  the  private 
life  of  this  Princess,  who  compromised  by  her  conduct 
the  inheritance  of  her  son,  together  with  the  Crown 

212 


The  Great  Revolution  213 

which  she  herself  wore.  On  her  arrival  in  Rus- 
sia she  had  been  met  with  expressions  of  great  sym- 
pathy, and  it  would  have  been  relatively  easy  for  her 
to  make  herself  hked  everywhere  and  by  everybody, 
because  the  peculiar  circumstances  which  had  accom- 
panied her  marriage  had  won  for  her  a  sincere  popu- 
larity all  over  Russia.  At  the  time  she  arrived  there 
as  the  bride  of  the  future  Sovereign  there  existed  in 
the  country  a  strong  current  of  anglomania,  which 
disappeared  later  on,  to  revive  again  during  the  last 
year  or  two.  The  Princess  who  came  to  Livadia  from 
Darmstadt  was  the  granddaughter  of  Queen  Vic- 
toria of  Great  Britain,  by  whom  she  had  been  partly 
brought  up,  a  fact  which  spoke  in  her  favour  because 
it  was  supposed  that  her  education  would  have  devel- 
oped in  her  liberal  opinions,  love  for  freedom,  and  the 
desire  to  make  herself  liked  as  well  as  respected  by  her 
future  subjects,  who  received  her  with  the  more  enthu- 
siasm that  they  all  hoped  she  would  influence  in  the 
right  direction  her  husband,  whose  weakness  of  char- 
acter was  already  at  that  time  known  by  those  who 
had  had  the  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with 
him.  One  felt  therefore  inclined  to  forgive  her  any 
small  mistake  she  might  be  led  into  committing  dur- 
ing those  first  days  which  followed  upon  her  arrival 
in  her  new  Fatherland.  One  pitied  this  young  bride, 
whose  marriage  was  to  follow  so  soon  the  funeral  of 
the  monarch  whose  untimely  death  was  lamented  so 
deeply  by  the  whole  of  Russia,  and  one  felt  quite  dis- 
posed, at  least  among  the  upper  classes  of  St.  Peters- 
burg society,  as  well  as  in  court  circles,  to  show  one- 
self indulgent  in  regard  to  the  almost  inevitable  errors 


214  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

into  which  she  might  fall,  at  the  beginning  of  her 
career  as  an  Empress.  This  feeling  was  so  strong 
that  during  the  first  months  which  followed  upon  her 
marriage,  the  popularity  of  her  mother-in-law,  who 
had  been  so  sincerely  loved  before,  suffered  as  a  con- 
sequence of  this  general  wish  to  make  an  idol  of  Alex- 
andra Feodorovna.  The  eyes  of  everybody  were 
turned  towards  the  new  star  that  had  arisen  on  the 
horizon  of  the  Russian  capital. 

Amidst  this  general  concert  of  praise  which  arose 
on  all  sides  in  honour  of  the  newly  wedded  Empress, 
there  were  a  few  persons  who,  having  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  listen  to  some  discordant  notes,  kept  aloof 
and  waited  for  what  the  future  would  bring.  At  the 
time  of  the  death  of  Alexander  III.,  a  man  belonging 
to  the  prominent  circles  of  Russian  society,  who  had 
been  for  a  long  period  of  years  upon  terms  of  per- 
sonal friendship  with  the  German  Royal  Family,  hap- 
pened to  be  in  Berlin,  and  during  a  visit  which  he 
paid  to  the  Empress  Frederick,  the  aunt  of  the  future 
wife  of  the  new  Czar,  he  told  her  how  many  hopes 
were  set  in  Russia  upon  her  young  niece.  He  was 
very  much  surprised  to  hear  the  Empress  express 
herself  with  a  certain  scepticism  in  regard  to  the  bride, 
and  finally  say  that  she  felt  afraid  the  Princess 
Alix,  as  she  was  still  called  at  the  time,  would  not 
understand  how  to  make  herself  beloved  by  her  sub- 
jects, or  how  to  win  then-  hearts.  Seeing  the  astonish- 
ment provoked  by  her  remark,  she  added  that  the  char- 
acter of  the  girl  about  to  wear  the  crown  of  the  Rom- 
anoffs, was  an  exceptionally  haughty  and  proud  one, 
and  that  as  in  addition  to  this  defect  she  was  pos- 


The  Great  Revolution  215 

sessed  of  an  unusual  amount  of  vanity,  she  would 
most  probably  have  her  head  turned  by  the  grandeur 
of  her  position,  and  would  put  forward,  in  place  of  the 
intelligence  which  she  did  not  possess,  an  exaggerated 
feeling  of  her  own  importance.  The  gentleman  to 
whom  I  have  referred  returned  therefore  to  Russia 
with  fewer  illusions  concerning  Alexandra  Feodo- 
rovna  than  the  generality  of  his  compatriots  indulged 
in. 

I  must  give  the  latter  their  due,  they  did  not  keep 
these  illusions  for  any  length  of  time,  because  from 
the  very  beginning  of  her  married  life  the  new  Czarina 
contrived  to  wound  the  feelings  and  the  susceptibili- 
ties of  all  those  with  whom  she  was  thrown  into  con- 
tact. She  had  absolutely  no  tact,  and  she  fancied 
that  if  she  allowed  herself  to  be  amiable  in  regard  to 
any  one,  she  would  do  something  which  was  below 
her  dignity.  She  applied  herself  to  treat  everybody 
from  the  height  of  her  unassailable  position,  and  she 
took  good  care  never  to  say  one  word  that  might  be 
interpreted  in  the  light  of  a  kindness  or  amiability 
towards  the  people  who  were  being  presented  to  her, 
so  that  though  they  tried  hard  to  attribute  her  utter 
want  of  politeness  to  a  timidity  which  in  reality  did 
not  exist,  yet  they  felt  offended  at  it.  Russian  society 
had  been  used  to  something  vastly  different,  and  to  a 
certain  familiarity  in  its  relations  with  its  Sover- 
eigns. The  mother  of  Nicholas  II.,  the  Empress 
Marie,  had  been  worshipped  for  the  incomparable 
charm  of  her  manners,  and  the  simple  kindness  with 
which  she  received  all  those  who  were  introduced  to 
her,  asking  them  to  sit  down  beside  her,  and  talking 


2i6  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

with  them  in  a  charming  chatty  way,  full  of  sweet  and 
unassuming  dignity.  Her  daughter-in-law  abolished 
these  morning  receptions  which  had  brought  the  Sov- 
ereign into  close  intercourse  with  so  many  different 
people.  She  received  the  ladies  who  had  asked  to  be 
presented  to  her,  standing,  surrounded  by  her  court, 
with  two  pages  behind  her  holding  her  train,  and  she 
merely  stretched  out  her  hand  to  be  kissed  by  those 
whom  she  condescended  to  admit  into  her  august 
presence,  without  speaking  one  single  word  to  them. 
Of  course  the  people  whom  she  treated  with  such 
rudeness  felt  hurt  at  it,  and  it  began  to  be  said  among 
the  public  that  the  Empress  was  not  at  all  amiable, 
and  people  abstained  from  seeking  her  presence  or 
appearing  at  Court,  unless  it  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  do  so,  leaving  thus  the  field  free  to  people 
devoid  of  self  respect,  to  whom  one  impoliteness  more 
or  less  did  not  matter.  The  balls  at  the  Winter  Pal- 
accy  which  formerly  had  been  such  brilliant  ones,  be- 
came dull  and  monotonous.  The  smile  of  the  Em- 
press Marie  was  no  longer  there  to  enliven  them.  At 
last  the  Czarina  left  off  giving  any,  and  no  one  missed 
them,  or  felt  the  worse  for  their  absence.  One  felt 
rather  relieved  than  otherwise  not  to  be  compelled  any 
longer  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  the  Empress. 

As  time  went  on,  an  abyss  was  formed  which  di- 
vided the  Consort  of  Nicholas  II.  from  her  subjects, 
whose  feelings  manifested  themselves  quite  openly  on 
the  day  of  the  solemn  entry  of  the  Imperial  Family 
into  Moscow,  on  the  eve  of  the  Coronation  of  the  new 
Sovereigns.  The  golden  carriage  that  contained  the 
Dowager  Empress  was  followed  all  along  its  way  by 


The  Great  Revolution  217 

tHe  cheers  of  the  population  of  the  ancient  capital, 
whilst  a  tragic  silence  prevailed  during  the  passage 
of  the  coach  in  which  sat  her  daughter-in-law.  The 
contrast  was  such  a  striking  one  that  it  was  every- 
where noticed  and  commented  upon. 

This  latent  animosity,  the  first  signs  of  which  man- 
ifested themselves  on  this  memorable  occasion,  became 
even  more  acute  after  the  catastrophe  of  Khodinka. 
Russia  did  not  forgive  its  Empress  for  having  danced 
the  whole  of  the  night  that  had  followed  upon  it,  and 
for  having  given  no  sign  of  regret  at  a  disaster  that 
had  cost  the  life  of  more  than  twenty  thousand  people, 
who  had  perished  in  the  most  awful  manner  possible. 
The  divorce  between  her  and  her  subjects  was  accom- 
plished definitely  after  that  day,  and  without  any  hope 
of  a  future  reconciliation  coming  to  annul  its  efi'ects. 

This  unpopularity,  and  let  us  say  the  word,  this 
hatred  of  which  she  became  the  object,  did  not  remain 
unknown  to  the  Empress,  who  either  noticed  it  her- 
self, or  else  was  enlightened  on  the  point  by  her 
German  relatives,  with  whom  she  had  remained  upon 
most  intimate  and  affectionate  terms.  She  attributed 
it  at  first  to  the  fact  that  she  had  not  during  many 
years  given  a  son  to  her  husband  and  an  heir  to  the 
Russian  Throne,  but  later  on  she  was  compelled  to 
acknowledge  that  the  dislike  which  she  inspired  was 
due  to  other  causes  which  were  dependant  on  her 
own  self.  The  discovery  angered  and  soured  her,  and 
made  her  nasty  and  ill  natured.  She  tried  to  avenge 
herself  by  the  assumption  of  an  authority  in  the  exer- 
cise of  which  she  found  a  certain  pleasure,  because  it 
procured  her  at  least  the  illusion  of  an  absolute  power. 


2i8  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

allowing  her,  if  the  wish  for  it  happened  to  cross  her 
mind,  to  crush  all  those  who  were  bold  enough  to 
criticise  any  of  her  actions  or  her  general  demeanour. 
Her  character  was  obstinate  without  being  firm. 
She  believed  herself  in  all  earnestness  to  be  the  equal 
of  her  husband,  and  did  not  think  of  herself  at  all  as 
his  first  subject,  so  that,  instead  of  giving  to  others 
the  example  of  deference  towards  their  Sovereign,  she 
applied  herself  to  lower  him  down  to  her  own  level, 
to  diminish  his  importance,  and  to  show  quite  openly 
that  she  did  not  in  the  very  least  respect  either  him 
or  the  throne  which  he  occupied.  One  heard  a  number 
of  anecdotes  on  the  subject,  among  others  one  to  the 
eiFect  that  during  a  regimental  feast,  at  which  the 
Imperial  Family  was  present,  the  Empress,  who  had 
arrived  a  little  in  advance  of  the  Czar,  did  not  rise 
from  her  seat  when  he  entered  the  riding  school  in 
which  the  guests  were  assembled  to  receive  him.  This 
want  of  deference  was  commented  upon  in  unfavour- 
able terms,  and  caused  such  a  scandal  that  Alexandra 
Feodorovna  was  taken  to  task  for  it  by  her  mother-in- 
law,  with  the  only  result  that  she  impertinently  told 
the  latter  to  mind  her  own  business  and  to  hold  her 
tongue.  The  Dowager  Empress  did  not  allow  her  to 
repeat  such  a  remark,  and  withdrew  herself  almost 
entirely  from  the  Court,  much  to  the  regret  of  all 
her  admirers.  All  these  things  were  perhaps  not  im- 
portant ones,  at  least  from  other  points  of  view  than 
the  purely  social  one,  but  they  constituted  this  drop  of 
water,  which  by  its  constant  and  continual  dripping 
ends  in  attacking  the  solidity  of  the  hardest  granite. 
Very  soon  it  became  a  subject  of  general  knowledge 


The  Great  Revolution  219 

that  no  one  cared  for  the  Empress,  and  one  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  this  initial  want  of  sympathy 
would  easily  become  very  real  and  implacable  hatred. 

The  woman  who  had  become  the  object  of  it,  instead 
of  trying  to  fight  against  the  general  dislike  which  she 
inspired,  did  absolutely  nothing  to  try  to  persuade 
her  subjects  that  she  was  not  the  detestable  being  she 
had  been  represented  to  be,  but  that  she  cared  for  their 
welfare,  in  spite  of  her  cold  appearance.  The  haughty 
and  mistaken  pride  which  was  one  of  the  chief  features 
in  her  strange  character,  led  her  to  retire  within  herself 
and  to  try  to  avoid  seeing  the  people,  who  by  that  time 
had  grown  to  meet  her  whenever  she  appeared  in  pub- 
lic, with  angry  and  unpleasant  expressions  in  their 
faces.  The  Imperial  Court  under  her  rule  was 
quickly  transformed  from  the  brilliant  assemblage  it 
had  been  into  a  desert — a  solitude  no  one  cared  to 
disturb.  The  Empress  amused  herself  chiefly  in 
turning  tables  and  in  evoking  spirits  from  the  other 
world,  in  company  with  mediums  of  a  low  kind  who 
abused  the  confidence  that  she  so  unwisely  and  un- 
necessarily placed  in  them,  and  predicted  for  her  (as 
it  was  to  their  interest  to  do)  a  happy  and  prosperous 
future. 

Then  came  the  war  with  Japan,  together  with  the 
disasters  which  attended  it,  a  war  that  shook  most 
seriously  the  prestige  of  the  throne  of  the  Romanoffs. 
It  brought  to  light  all  the  defects,  the  disorder,  and 
the  inefficiency  of  the  War  Office;  it  enlightened  the 
nation  as  to  the  real  worth  of  the  people  who  were 
standing  at  the  head  of  its  government,  and  it  sounded 
the  first  knell  of  the  Revolution  which  was  at  last  ac- 


220  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

complished.  This  war  afforded  another  pretext  to 
the  public  for  attacking  the  personahty  of  the  Em- 
press, who  according  to  the  rumours  which  circulated 
at  the  time,  had  only  looked  upon  it  from  the  joyous 
and  glorious  side,  and  never  noticed  its  earnest  and 
sad  one.  It  is  a  fact  that  neither  disasters  like  those 
of  Moukhden  and  Tschousima,  nor  even  the  revolu- 
tionary movement  that  broke  out  in  consequence  of 
them,  affected  her  equanimity.  She  remained  abso- 
lutely cold  in  presence  of  these  grave  events  and  was 
absorbed  in  the  joy  of  the  new  maternity,  which  just 
at  that  time  was  granted  to  her — the  birth  of  the  long 
expected  and  hoped  for  Heir  to  the  Russian  Throne, 
which  occurred  in  the  very  midst  of  the  Japanese  cam- 
paign. This  event  certainly  did  not  contrive  to  make 
her  more  popular  among  her  subjects,  whilst  on  the 
other  hand  it  increased  considerably  her  importance, 
so  that  after  the  appearance  in  the  world  of  the  son 
she  had  so  ardently  wished  for,  she  began  to  displaj^ 
more  independence  in  her  conduct  than  had  been 
formerly  the  case,  and  to  discuss  more  eagerly,  and 
more  authoritatively  than  she  had  ever  been  able  to 
do  before,  matters  of  State  which  her  position  as  the 
mother  of  the  future  Sovereign  gave  her  almost  a 
right  to  know,  and  to  interfere  with.  She  brought 
forward  her  own  opinions  and  judgments,  which  never 
once  proved  in  accord  with  the  real  needs  of  the  Rus- 
sian people.  The  Empress  was  neither  good,  kind, 
nor  compassionate.  Her  nature  was  cold,  hard  and 
imperious,  and  she  had  never  been  accessible  to  the 
divine  feeling  which  is  called  pity  for  other  people's 
woes.     She  would  have  signed  a  death  warrant  with 


The  Great  Revolution  221 

the  greatest  coolness  and  indifference,  and  more  than 
once  her  husband  decided,  thanks  to  her  interven- 
tion, to  confirm  those  submitted  to  his  consideration. 
This  last  fact  became  known,  and,  as  may  be  im- 
agined, it  did  not  procure  her  any  sympathy  among 
her  subjects. 

It  was  about  that  time,  that  is  just  before  the  birth 
of  the  Heir  to  the  Throne,  and  whilst  the  war  with 
Japan  was  being  fought,  that  people  began  to  spread 
dark  rumours  concerning  the  private  life  of  Alexandra 
Feodorovna.  A  most  extraordinary  friendship  which 
she  contracted  with  a  lady  whose  reputation  left  very 
much  to  be  desired,  and  who  had  been  divorced  from 
her  husband  under  circumstances  that  had  given  rise 
to  much  talk,  Madame  Wyroubieva,  was  severely 
criticised.  The  Empress  remained  deaf  to  all  the  hints 
which  v/ere  conveyed  to  her  on  the  subject.  She  kept 
the  lady  in  question  beside  her,  gave  her  rooms  in  the 
Imperial  Palace,  and  took  her  about  with  her  wher- 
ever she  went,  without  minding  in  the  least  the  im- 
pression which  this  bravado  of  public  opinion  pro- 
duced everywhere.  Another  friendship  for  a  certain 
Colonel  OrlofF,  an  officer  in  her  own  regiment  of  lanc- 
ers, also  gave  rise  to  considerable  gossip,  which  in- 
creased in  intensity  when  after  the  death  of  the  lat- 
ter, who  committed  suicide  under  rather  mysterious 
circumstances,  the  Empress  repaired  every  afternoon 
to  the  churchyard  where  he  was  buried,  prayed  and 
laid  flowers  upon  his  grave.  One  wondered  why  she 
did  such  strange  things,  and  of  course  persons  were  at 
once  found  to  explain  her  motives  in  a  manner  which 
was  the  reverse  of  charitable. 


222  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

The  Emperor  knew  and  saw  all  that  was  going  on, 
but  said  nothing.  His  wife  by  that  time  had  acquired 
over  his  mind  quite  an  extraordinary  influence,  and 
either  he  did  not  dare  to  make  any  remarks  as  to 
the  originality  which  she  displayed  in  her  conduct, 
or  else  he  imagined  that  her  position  put  her  so  much 
above  criticism  that  it  was  useless  to  interfere  with 
what  she  might  feel  inclined  to  do  in  the  matter  of 
eccentricity.  A  legend  soon  established  itself  in  re- 
gard to  Alexandra  Feodorovna.  She  was  said  to 
suffer  from  a  nervous  affection,  which  obliged  her 
at  times  to  keep  to  her  own  apartments,  and  not  to 
appear  in  public.  People  tried,  thanks  to  this  pre- 
text, to  explain  her  absence  on  different  occasions 
when  her  position  would  have  required  her  to  show 
herself  to  her  subjects.  But  the  truth  of  the  matter 
was  that  the  Empress  did  not  wish  to  see  anybody, 
outside  the  small  circle  of  people  before  whom  she 
need  not  constrain  herself  to  be  amiable  or  pleasant; 
and  that  utterly  forgetful  of  the  duties  entailed  upon 
her  by  her  high  rank  and  great  position,  she  wanted 
only  to  live  according  to  her  personal  tastes,  sur- 
rounded by  flatterers  or  by  people  resigned  before- 
hand to  accept  and  bow  down  before  her  numerous 
caprices,  and  to  fulfil  with  a  blind  obedience  all  the 
commands  it  might  please  her  to  issue  to  them. 

She  mixed  openly  in  public  affairs,  and  began 
to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  conduct  of  the  State. 
Her  husband  never  dared  to  refuse  her  anything, 
and  the  Empress  attempted  to  lead  the  destinies  of 
Russia  in  the  sense  which  she  had  the  most  at  heart, 
that  is  in  one  corresponding  to  the  interests  of  her 


The  Great  Revolution  223 

own  native  country.  She  had  remained  entirely  Ger- 
man in  her  tastes  and  opinions,  and  her  English  edu- 
cation had  had  absolutely  no  influence  on  her  charac- 
ter. Thanks  to  an  active  correspondence  vrhich  she 
kept  up  with  her  brother,  the  Grand  Duke  of  Hesse, 
she  was  able  to  acquaint  the  Emperor  William  II. 
with  a  good  many  things  that  he  would  never  have 
learned  without  her.  This  is  the  more  curious,  if  one 
takes  into  account  the  fact  that  during  the  first  years 
which  had  followed  upon  her  marriage,  and  especially 
after  the  different  journeys  which  she  had  made  in 
France,  Alexandra  Feodorovna  had  expressed  great 
sympathy  and  admiration  for  everything  that  was 
French,  perhajjs  on  account  of  the  great  enthusiasm 
with  which  she  had  been  received  by  the  French  pop- 
ulation. But  later  on,  thanks  to  the  influence  of  the 
unscrupulous  people  into  whose  hands  she  fell,  her 
ideas  became  transformed,  and  she  boldly  tried  to  fight 
against  the  French  leanings  of  her  husband,  and  to 
lead  him  towards  an  alliance  with  Germany,  in  which 
she  thought  that  she  saw  the  advantage,  and  even  the 
safety  of  her  throne,  and  of  the  son  she  loved  above 
everything  else  in  the  world. 

All  these  facts  could  not  long  remain  unknown,  and 
soon  the  public  began  to  discuss  them,  together  with 
the  story  of  the  diff'erent  intrigues  of  which  the  Pal- 
ace of  Tsarskoie  Selo  became  the  centre.  Thanks  to 
the  friends  whom  she  had  chosen  for  herself,  the  ante- 
chamber of  the  Empress  was  transformed  into  a  kind 
of  annex  to  the  Stock  Exchange,  where  all  sorts  of 
people,  honest  or  dishonest,  used  to  meet,  in  order  to 
obtain  through  her  intercession  more  or  less  extrava- 


224  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

gant,  if  not  dangerous,  favours.  Thanks  to  Madame 
Wyroubieva,  there  were  introduced  into  the  intimacy 
of  the  Czarina  certain  members  of  the  orthodox 
clergy  recommendable  only  by  their  love  for  money 
and  for  lucrative  employments,  or  rich  dioceses  and 
monasteries.  The  Empress  together  with  her  sister, 
the  Grand  Duchess  Elisabeth,  who  after  the  murder 
of  her  husband  had  become  a  nun  and  the  superior 
of  a  cloister  which  she  had  founded  in  Moscow,  and 
to  whom  one  might  have  applied  with  success  the  re- 
mark of  Marie  Antoinette  in  regard  to  her  aunt  Ma- 
dame Louise  of  France,  "she  is  the  most  intriguing 
little  Carmelite  in  the  whole  of  the  kingdom,"  tried  to 
mix  themselves  up  in  every  important  matter  in  the 
State,  and  to  lead  it  according  to  their  own  lights 
and  aims,  making  use  of  the  Emperor  as  of  an  instru- 
ment of  their  own  private  ambitions  and  desires.  They 
were  both  fierce  reactionaries,  who  from  the  first  day 
that  Nicholas  II.  had  promulgated  the  Constitution 
of  the  17th  of  October,  had  tried  to  persuade  him 
to  recall  it.  It  was  thanks  to  the  initiative  of  the  Em- 
press that  the  first  Duma  was  dissolved,  and  that  the 
government  began  to  exercise  considerable  pressure 
over  the  elections  in  order  to  prevent  the  candidates 
whom  it  believed  it  could  not  trust  from  being  chosen 
by  their  constituents.  One  Minister  after  another 
of  those  whom  the  Czar  appointed  in  rapid  succession, 
resigned  their  functions,  until  at  last  it  was  an  ac- 
knowledged fact  in  Russia  that  no  honest  trial  of  con- 
stitutional government  could  or  would  be  attempted 
so  long  as  Alexandra  Feodorovna  would  be  there  to 
counteract  its  existence.    When  the  Revolution  broke 


The  Great  Revolution  225 

out  in  the  year  1905,  and  especially  at  the  time  of  the 
disturbances  which  took  place  in  Moscow,  it  was  the 
Empress  who  excited  her  husband  to  adopt  rigorous 
measures  in  order  to  crush  it,  measures  which  led  to 
nothing,  and  which  only  made  Nicholas  II.  a  little 
more  unpopular  than  he  already  was  among  his  sub- 
jects. It  was  related,  whether  true  or  not  I  cannot 
say,  that  when  the  famous  Semenovsky  Regiment  was 
sent  to  Moscow  to  reduce  into  submission  the  insur- 
rection which  had  broken  out  there,  Alexandra  Feo- 
dorovna  had  desired  to  say  good-bye  to  the  officers 
before  their  departure,  and  that  the  only  recommen- 
dation which  she  had  made  to  them  had  been  not  to 
show  any  mercy  to  the  insurgents.  She  had  read 
without  understanding  it  in  the  very  least,  the  history 
of  the  French  Revolution  in  1789,  and  one  had  often 
heard  her  say  that  to  show  any  weakness  or  compas- 
sion in  times  of  danger  was  equivalent  to  signing 
one's  own  death  warrant.  Her  friends  were  nearly 
all  of  them  men  and  women  with  a  bad  reputation, 
and  amidst  the  circle  of  her  own  immediate  family 
she  had  only  contrived  tc  make  herself  enemies. 
Thanks  to  her  influence,  and  to  her  petty  personal 
spite,  the  young  Grand  Duke  Cyril,  the  son  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Vladimir,  was  deprived  of  his  titles  and 
dignities  and  exiled  from  Russia  for  having  dared  to 
marry  his  first  cousin,  the  divorced  wife  of  the  Em- 
press's brother,  the  Grand  Duke  of  Hesse,  the  Prin- 
cess Victoria  Melita  of  Edinburgh.  This  punish- 
ment, however,  was  promptly  cancelled,  thanks  to  the 
numerous  protests  which  followed  upon  it  from  all 
quarters,  but  the  two  people  concerned  never  forgave 


226  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  Empress  her  attitude  in  regard  to  their  union, 
and  we  saw  an  echo  of  this  hostiHty  the  other  day 
when  the  Grand  Duke  Cyril  on  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution  tried  to  play  the  part  of  Philippe  Egalite 
in  the  Romanoff  family,  and  went  with  his  regiment 
to  put  himself  at  the  disposal  of  the  new  government 
appointed  by  the  Duma. 

The  only  brother  of  Nicholas  II.,  the  Grand  Duke 
Michael  Alexandrovitsch,  saw  the  influence  of  the 
Empress  exercised  against  him  in  a  manner  which 
was  even  more  odious,  because  she  contrived  to  de- 
prive him  of  the  control  not  only  of  his  fortune,  but 
also  of  his  personal  liberty  to  manage  his  estates.  With 
her  mother-in-law,  the  Dowager  Empress  Marie, 
Alexandra  Feodorovna  showed  herself  absolutely 
abominable  in  her  disdain,  haughtiness  and  pride. 
With  the  persons  composing  her  court  and  household, 
she  was  unpleasant  and  bitter.  Even  in  regard  to  her 
own  daughters  she  proved  herself  heartless,  and  she 
never  once  during  the  twenty-three  years  which  fol- 
lowed her  arrival  in  Russia  until  the  day  of  her  down- 
fall, tried  to  do  any  good  around  her  or  induce  her  hus- 
band to  accomplish  one  of  those  actions  full  of  gen- 
erosity and  mercy  which  unite  a  nation  with  its  Sov- 
ereign, and  make  their  hearts  beat  together  for  some 
noble  cause  or  other.  Then  again  there  occurred  the 
Rasputin  incident.  I  have  discussed  it  at  length  in  the 
first  part  of  this  book,  and  shall  therefore  not  enter 
here  into  a  second  description  of  the  career  of  this 
strange  personage,  this  low  Cagliostro  of  a  reign  that 
did  not  deserve  to  have  any  great  nobleman  or  even 
gentleman  for  its  favourite.    The  only  thing  which  I 


The  Great  Revolution  227 

want  to  point  out  to  the  reader,  is  the  responsibility 
which  devolves  upon  the  Empress  in  this  disagreeable 
story,  which  more  perhaps  than  anything  else  hastened 
the  fall  of  the  old  Romanoff  monarchy.  Whether 
she  was  really  persuaded  of  the  holy  character  of  the 
sinister  adventurer  who  had  contrived  so  cleverly  to 
exploit  her  credulity,  or  whether  there  was  in  this 
curious  infatuation  for  an  unworthy  object  a  ques- 
tion of  hypnotism,  combined  with  the  extravagance  of 
a  badly  balanced  mind  and  imagination,  it  is  difficult 
to  say,  especially  when  one  has  not  followed  otherwise 
than  by  hearsay  the  different  incidents  of  this  almost 
unbelievable  tragedy.  It  is  probable  that  the  mystery, 
such  as  it  was,  will  never  be  quite  explained,  but  one 
may  reasonably  suppose  that  the  perpetual  invoca- 
tions to  spirits  of  another  world,  which  Alexandra 
Feodorovna  had  practised  for  so  many  years,  have  had 
a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  obstinacy  with  which  she  in- 
sisted upon  imposing  this  personage  upon  all  those 
who  surrounded  her,  and  with  which  she  allowed  him 
to  interfere  with  the  details  of  her  family  life,  a 
thing  which  went  so  far  that  one  day  the  governess 
of  the  young  Grand  Duchesses,  Mademoiselle  Tout- 
scheff ,  a  most  distinguished  lady,  went  to  seek  the 
Emperor,  and  told  him  that  she  could  no  longer  be  re- 
sponsible for  the  education  of  his  daughters  if  Raspu- 
tin was  allowed  to  enter  their  apartments  at  every 
hour  of  the  day  and  night.  The  only  reply  which  was 
made  by  Nicholas  II.  to  this  communication  was  that 
the  Empress  ought  not  to  be  crossed,  on  account  of 
the  state  of  her  nerves.  He  seemed  to  approve  of 
everything  that  was  going  on  in  his  house,  and,  this 


228  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

is  the  point  which  has  always  seemed  so  incompre- 
hensible in  his  character,  he  even  appeared  to  view 
with  a  certain  pleasure  the  admittance  into  the  inti- 
macy of  his  home  life  of  this  uncivilised  and  uncouth 
creature  called  Rasputin,  whose  hand  Alexandra  Feo- 
dorovna  bent  down  to  kiss  with  a  reverence  that  she 
had  never  before  in  the  course  of  her  whole  life  shown 
to  any  one  else,  not  excepting  Queen  Victoria  of  Eng- 
land, whom  she  had  tried  to  snub  during  the  official 
visit  which  she  had  paid  to  her  after  her  marriage. 

The  complete  indifference  of  the  Czar  as  to  what 
was  going  on  around  him  and  under  his  own  roof, 
combined  with  his  weakness  of  character  and  his  un- 
reasonable love  for  his  wife,  did  not  add  to  the  feel- 
ings of  respect  that  his  subjects  ought  to  have  enter- 
tained for  him.  In  a  very  short  time  extraordinary 
rumours  began  to  circulate  concerning  all  that  was 
supposed  to  take  place  at  Tsarskoie  Selo,  rumours 
which,  disseminated  as  they  were  among  the  popula- 
tion of  Petrograd,  contributed  in  no  small  degree 
to  the  promptitude  with  which  it  rallied  itself  to  the 
cause  of  the  Revolution  that  put  an  end  to  the  reign 
of  Nicholas  II.  It  was  related  amongst  other  things 
that  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Ai'my,  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas,  had  one  day  told  his  Imperial  nephew 
that  if  he  did  not  lock  up  Alexandra  Feodorovna  in 
a  convent,  he  would  come  himself  at  the  head  of  his 
troops,  to  carry  her  away,  and  confine  her  within  the 
walls  of  the  monastery  of  Novodievitvchy.  True  or 
not,  the  story  was  repeated  everywhere,  and  it  pro- 
cured for  the  Grand  Duke  a  considerable  number  of 
friends  and  sympathisers. 


The  Great  Revolution  229 

Soon  after  this  it  was  related  that  the  Empress  was 
in  connivance  with  the  numerous  people  who  had  made 
it  their  business  to  plunder  the  national  exchequer, 
and  that  she  looked  with  indulgence  upon  the  malver- 
sations from  which  profited  the  partisans  and  the 
accomplices,  for  one  could  hardly  call  them  by  another 
name,  of  Rasputin.  She  began  to  be  hated  even  more 
ferociously  than  had  been  the  case  before,  and  at 
last  the  police  had  to  let  Nicholas  II.  know  that  his 
Consort  would  do  better  not  to  show  herself  too  often 
in  public,  because  an  attempt  against  her  life  might 
easily  come  to  be  made,  under  the  influence  of  all  the 
stories  which  one  heard  right  and  left  concerning  her 
private  conduct  and  her  affection  for  a  being  who  was 
accused  by  the  whole  nation  of  being  fatal  to  Rus- 
sia's prosperity  at  home  and  good  renown  abroad. 
The  Czar  listened  to  all  this,  as  he  was  to  listen  later 
on  to  the  remonstrances  of  his  own  family,  but  he  did 
not  act  on  all  that  he  had  been  told.  He  continued 
to  see  Rasputin,  partly  because,  according  to  the 
tales  of  those  who  were  in  the  secret  of  what  really 
went  on  in  that  strange  Imperial  household,  the 
frank  way  of  speaking  of  this  uncouth  peasant 
amused  him  and  pleased  him,  being  something  so 
totally  different  from  the  language  which  he  was  ac- 
customed to  hear.  But  contrary  to  what  was  gen- 
erally believed,  he  did  not  discuss  with  him  matters 
of  State,  any  more  than  did  the  Empress.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  this  last  assertion  is  correct,  and  that 
Rasputin  in  regard  to  Nicholas  II.  only  played  the 
part  sustained  by  Chicot  at  the  court  of  Henri  III. 
of  France,  that  of  the  King's  Jester,  caj)able  occa- 


230  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

sionally  of  telling  some  truths  to  his  master.  But  dur- 
ing the  last  months  which  preceded  the  removal  of 
this  sinister  figure  from  the  horizon  of  Tsarskoie 
Selo,  no  one  in  Russia  would  believe  in  such 
a  version,  seeing  that  this  Jester  could  dispose 
according  to  his  pleasure  of  all  the  high  places 
in  the  State,  that  he  had  created  ministers,  func- 
tionaries of  paramount  importance,  church  dignitaries, 
and  that  whoever  addressed  himself  to  him  generally 
got  what  he  wanted,  whilst  it  was  his  friends  who  were 
controlling  the  government  of  the  vast  empire  of  the 
Czars.  One  did  not  realise  that  this  had  become  pos- 
sible only  because  all  persons  endowed  with  the  slight- 
est independence  of  character,  had  gradually  become 
estranged  from  their  Sovereign,  and  had  come  to  the 
decision  to  abandon  him  to  his  fate,  disgusted  as  they 
were  by  his  weakness  in  regard  to  his  wife,  and  being 
moreover  unwilling  to  accept  the  responsibility  of  du- 
ties which  they  were  not  allowed  to  fulfil  according 
to  the  dictates  of  their  conscience.  One  after  another 
the  Ministers,  who  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
Nicholas  II.  had  helped  him  to  rule  Russia,  had  been 
dismissed  by  him,  or  retired  of  their  own  accord,  and 
their  places  had  been  taken  by  simple  subaltern  func- 
tionaries, preoccupied  only  with  that  one  single 
thought  of  remaining  as  long  as  possible  in  possession 
of  the  places  which  they  had  been  called  upon  by  a 
caprice  of  destiny  to  occupy,  and  for  which  they  knew 
at  heart  that  they  were  not  fit.  Everybody  who  had 
a  sense  of  decency  left,  had  fled  from  Tsarskoie 
Selo,  not  caring  to  enter  into  conflict  with  the  myste- 
rious  and    subterranean   powers,   which,   to   repeat 


The  Great  Revolution  231 

the  words  used  by  Professor  Paul  Miliukoff  in  his 
famous  speech  in  the  Duma  a  few  days  before  the 
Revolution,  alone  decided  the  most  important  ques- 
tions in  the  State.  The  whole  country  was  disgusted 
at  the  conduct  of  those  who  ruled  it,  and  this  disgust 
was  soon  to  change  into  an  absolute  contempt.  The 
unpopularity  of  the  Empress  had  extended  itself  to 
the  person  of  the  Czar  himself,  whom  one  was  begin- 
ning to  render  responsible  for  the  different  things 
going  on  under  his  roof  and  to  accuse  of  seeing, 
without  any  emotion,  the  Imperial  prestige  and 
honour  sullied,  and  this  autocracy  for  which  he  cared 
so  much  dishonoured.  This  unfortunate  Emperor  did 
not  find  anywhere  a  support.  His  mother  had  been 
estranged  from  him;  his  whole  family  had  turned 
against  him,  after  numerous  and  useless  attempts  to 
open  his  eyes  as  to  the  dangers  which  surrounded  him 
and  the  position  in  which  he  stood  before  his  subjects. 
His  brother  had  been  systematically  kept  away  from 
him  by  the  Empress,  who  did  not  care  to  have  in  her 
vicinity  a  man  in  whom  she  saw  an  eventual  pre- 
tender to  the  throne  of  her  son.  His  sisters  tried  to 
remove  themselves  as  far  from  his  as  possible.  He 
was  longing  for  disinterested  affections,  and  there  is 
therefore  nothing  wonderful  or  surprising  that  he 
sought  them  from  the  wife  whom  fate  had  associated 
with  his  existence,  whom  in  spite  of  everything  he 
continued  to  love  tenderly,  and  whose  nefarious  influ- 
ence was  to  lead  him  to  his  destruction. 

And  she,  this  woman  who  alone  stands  responsible 
for  all  this  ruin  that  has  overtaken  her  consort,  and 
his  dynasty,   did  she  ever  understand  the  terrible 


232  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

responsibility  that  she  had  assumed?  Did  she  ever 
try  to  be  for  her  husband  the  faithful  companion 
whom  he  required,  and  on  whom  he  might  have 
leant  in  the  hour  of  danger  and  of  peril?  Did  she 
attempt  to  develop  in  him  those  strong  and  virile 
qualities  a  sovereign  conscious  of  his  might  requires 
to  be  able  to  handle  it  wisely  ?  Did  she  ever  enter  into 
the  needs  of  her  people,  or  identify  herself  with  the 
interests  of  the  nation  whose  Empress  she  happened  to 
be  ?  Alas !  Alas !  history  has  already  replied  to  those 
questions,  and  it  is  history  which  tells  us  that,  thanks 
to  Alexandra  Feodorovna,  the  inlieritance  bequeathed 
by  Peter  the  Great  to  his  posterity  has  been  squan- 
dered and  lost.  If  there  has  ever  existed  a  woman 
who  has  proved  fatal  to  all  those  with  whom  her  lot 
has  been  thrown,  it  is  this  little  Hessian  Princess, 
whom  fate  or  chance  associated  with  one  of  the  great- 
est political  crises  of  which  Russian  history  will  keep 
the  record  and  the  remembrance,  and  for  whose  tears 
no  one  will  find  any  pity,  even  when  her  sorrows  will 
need  it  most. 


CHAPTER  III 

In  one  of  her  letters  addressed  to  her  daughter 
Marie  Antoinette,  the  Empress  Marie  Therese  wrote : 
"I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  have  decided  to  re- 
establish the  old  etiquette  and  representation  of 
Versailles.  However  tiresome  it  may  be,  its  incon- 
veniences are  still  far  less  than  those  which  arise  out 
of  its  absence.  A  Court  must  learn  to  know  well  its 
sovereigns."  These  words  of  a  woman  who  knew  bet- 
ter than  any  other  queen  had  ever  known  how  to  up- 
hold the  prestige  of  her  crown,  ought  to  have  been 
remembered  by  the  Czar  Nicholas  II.,  because  it  is  an 
undoubted  fact  that  the  custom  which  was  established 
during  his  reign  to  keep  the  Emperor  and  his 
family  isolated  from  the  nation  over  which  he 
ruled,  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  change  that 
established  itself  gradually  in  the  ideas  of  the  people, 
as  well  as  in  the  minds  of  the  aristocracy,  in  regard  to 
the  reigning  house.  One  forgot  that  there  existed 
in  Russia  an  Emperor,  and  one  only  remembered  the 
manifold  abuses  which  were  the  consequence  of  the 
detestable  government  to  which  the  nation  was  sub- 
jected. All  the  personal  ties  that  might  have  bound 
the  monarch  with  those  who  could  in  an  emergency 
have  defended  him  against  danger,  had  been  snapped 
asunder  by  that  monarch  himself.  St.  Petersburg, 
which  formerly  (I  have  now  in  mind  only  the  upper 

233 


234  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

classes)  had  converged  towards  the  sun  represented 
by  the  Imperial  Palace  and  its  inhabitants,  learned 
how  to  do  without  it,  and  it  was  no  longer  considered 
to  be  an  honour  to  have  relations,  no  matter  of  what 
nature,  with  any  member  of  the  House  of  Romanoff. 
The  Imperial  Family,  in  imitation  of  the  conduct  pur- 
sued by  its  Chief,  seemed  as  if  it  wished  to  efface  it- 
self and  to  lead  the  existence  of  common  mortals, 
which  it  did  not  succeed  in  doing,  because  it  had  been 
brought  up  too  far  from  the  world  in  general,  repre- 
sented by  that  portion  of  humanity  which  suffers  and 
which  works  in  silence,  to  be  able  to  enter  into  its  in- 
terests, and  to  make  them  its  own.  On  the  other  hand 
that  same  family  gave  the  first  signal  of  rebellion 
against  the  system  represented  by  the  masters  of  the 
Palace  of  Tsarskoie  Selo,  whom  it  applied  itself  to 
discredit  with  an  energy  which  was  the  more  tenacious 
that  it  would  have  liked  to  be  in  their  place.  The 
Grand  Duchess  Vladimir,  especially,  together  with  her 
two  sons,  who  had  never  cared  for  the  Head  of  their 
dynasty,  were  the  first  ones  to  greet  in  their  house  all 
the  discontented  people  who  abounded  in  the  Russian 
capital,  and  to  deplore  in  their  presence  the  scandal 
occasioned  by  the  strange  conduct  of  the  Empress. 
The  Revolution  which  was  to  come  later  on  was  pre- 
pared silently  in  the  palaces  of  the  very  persons  who 
ought  to  have  fought  against  it,  as  well  as  in  the  homes 
of  those  old  servants  of  the  monarchy,  who  would 
have  wished  to  save  it  from  the  disaster,  which  they 
saw  but  too  well,  was  fast  overtaking  it,  but  who 
had  to  own  themselves  powerless  to  do  so,  and  had  to 
acknowledge  with  sorrow  and  with  shame  that  it  was 


The  Great  Revolution  235 

discrediting  itself  a  little  more  with  each  day  that  was 
passing.  The  nation,  on  its  side,  was  preparing  itself 
for  the  impending  struggle.  The  systematic  manner 
in  which  the  labour  party  in  Russia  organised  itself  in 
view  of  the  approaching  Revolution,  has  never  been 
sufficiently  known  or  appreciated  abroad.  It  has 
constituted  for  those  who  have  followed  the  slow  evo- 
lution which  was  the  consequence  of  the  premature 
revolutionary  movement  that  had  failed  in  1905,  one 
of  the  most  interesting  political  problems  of  the  twen- 
tieth centurj^  I  have  lived  in  Russia  during  the  j^ears 
which  have  immediately  preceded  the  war,  and  I  have 
been  in  personal  relations  with  some  of  the  leaders 
of  this  party.  I  can  therefore  write  about  it  from  the 
point  of  view  of  a  witness  eager  to  watch  the  slow 
transformation,  which  out  of  a  party  essentially  vio- 
lent in  its  view  and  aspirations  had  produced  a  polit- 
ical faction,  sufficiently  ripened  and  saddened  by  the 
unsuccesses  of  its  first  fight  not  to  seek  elsewhere 
than  in  a  too  rapid  solution  the  end  of  the  difficulties 
under  which  it  had  been  condemned  to  develop  itself. 
It  was  quite  sufficient  to  have  witnessed  the  manifes- 
tations that  used  to  take  place  each  first  of  May,  to 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  workman  who  was 
walking  the  streets,  singing  and  carrying  revolution- 
ary flags,  in  1906,  was  quite  a  different  man  from  the 
one  who  indulged  in  manifestations  of  the  like  kind  in 
1913  and  1914.  The  general  strike  which  preceded 
the  war  by  a  few  weeks  upon  which  the  Germans 
founded  so  many  useless  hopes  was,  notwithstanding 
its  revolutionarj^  character,  rather  an  expression  of 
opinion  on  the  part  of  a  powerful  and  perfectly  well 


236  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

organised  party  than  a  rebellion  against  authority. 
The  workman  had  at  last  realised  that  he  had  got  the 
future  for  him,  provided  he  did  not  allow  his  natural 
impatience  to  carry  him  too  far,  and  that  he  could 
resist  the  temptation  to  proceed  too  quickly  with  the 
plans  which  he  had  formed.  He  had  also  realised  an- 
other thing,  and  that  was  that  neither  the  liberals  nor 
the  octobrists,  nor  the  party  called  that  of  the  cadets, 
nor  even  the  revolutionary  socialists,  were  strong 
enough  to  constitute  a  govermnent,  and  that  all  the 
plans  they  were  continually  talking  about,  would  only 
end  in  speeches  more  or  less  empty  and  devoid  of 
practical  common  sense.  The  workman  applied  him- 
self to  avoid  mistakes,  which  perhaps  he  had  noticed 
before  he  had  quite  grasped  their  importance.  He  un- 
derstood on  the  other  hand  perfectly  well  the  fact 
that  the  immense  industrial  movement,  which  had  de- 
veloped itself  during  the  years  that  had  followed  im- 
mediately upon  the  war  with  Japan,  was  bound  to  in- 
crease still  further  in  importance,  and  that  the  future 
belonged  to  those  who  would  be  able  to  profit  by  it, 
to  guide  it,  and  to  direct  it  in  the  sense  of  a  great  and 
general  reform  of  the  different  abuses  which  had  cor- 
rupted all  the  higher  classes  of  the  nation.  The  num- 
ber of  factories  which  suddenly  arose  everywhere, 
the  speculation  that  followed  upon  the  rise  in  the  value 
of  all  kinds  of  industrial  securities,  and  the  knowledge 
that  the  workman  very  quickly  acquired  as  to  the  dif- 
ferent means  thanks  to  which  the  fortunes  of  so  many 
people  come,  no  one  knew  from  whence,  had  been  edi- 
fied, gave  him  a  strength  which  became  the  more  for- 
midable that  he  was  compelled  to  remain  silent  in  pres- 


The  Great  Revolution  237 

ence  of  so  many  spectacles  that  revolted  his  sense  of 
integrity.  In  regard  to  this  particular  point,  the  im- 
possibility to  hold  public  meetings  proved  a  blessing 
in  disguise  for  the  development  of  the  activity  of  the 
labour  party,  because  it  allowed  it  to  proceed  in  secret 
to  a  propaganda  that  became  the  more  dangerous  for 
the  security  of  the  government  in  that  there  existed  no 
one  able  to  point  out  to  those  among  whom  it  flour- 
ished its  perilous,  and  even  to  a  certain  extent,  its 
disastrous  sides.  Under  the  very  eyes  of  the  police, 
the  mass  of  the  workmen  employed  in  the  different 
factories  scattered  all  over  Petrograd,  prepared  it- 
self for  the  mission  w^hich  it  felt  but  too  well  was 
bound  sooner  or  later  to  devolve  upon  it ;  so  that  when- 
ever it  allowed  its  voice  to  be  heard,  it  was  always  with 
prudence,  and  even  with  a  certain  amount  of  cautious 
wisdom  that  prevented  the  general  public  and  the  au- 
thorities noticing  how  strong  and  powerful  it  was  get- 
ting, and  what  a  wonderful  instrument  it  would  prove 
later  on,  in  the  hands  of  those  who  in  the  meanwhile 
were  leading  it  in  secret,  until  the  day  when,  thanks 
to  their  help,  it  would  be  able  in  its  turn  to  lead 
others. 

It  must  here  be  remarked  that  the  Russian  govern- 
ment of  that  time  never  understood  the  wants  of  the 
labour  party.  It  is  sufficient  to  recall  the  terrible 
drama  which  was  enacted  in  the  Lena  gold  fields  of 
Siberia,  when  the  troops,  called  to  the  help  of  the  own- 
ers of  the  works,  fired  on  the  mass  of  workmen  who 
were  simply  asking  for  some  legitimate  improvements 
in  their  conditions  of  existence,  to  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that,  according  to  the  words  of  Hamlet,  "there 


238  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

was  something  rotten  in  that  state  of  Denmark." 
Only,  neither  the  government  nor  the  upper  classes 
of  society,  who  were  all  of  them,  or  nearly  all,  in  the 
dependance  of  a  few  lucky  speculators  in  stocks  and 
shares,  nor  these  speculators  themselves,  whose  num- 
ber was  getting  larger  and  larger  every  day  in  St. 
Petersburg,  cared  to  remember  that  such  was  the  fact. 
During  the  years  which  immediately  preceded  the 
great  war,  the  whole  of  Russia  had  become  one  vast 
Stock  Exchange,  the  securities  of  which  were  quoted 
at  every  street  corner,  where  the  only  things  that  had 
any  value,  were  those  which  could  be  turned  into  a 
shareholder's  company.  The  Emperor  Alexander 
III.  had  tried,  during  the  whole  time  of  his  reign,  to 
improve  agriculture  in  his  land,  and  he  had  tried  to 
bind  together  the  different  social  classes  of  the  nation, 
by  a  common  love  for  their  native  soil.  It  had  been 
told  at  that  time  that  he  had  been  wrong  in  looking 
upon  Russia  exclusively  from  the  agricultural  point 
of  view,  but  in  presence  of  the  things  Avhich  have  hap- 
pened recently,  one  may  vronder  whether  after  all  he 
had  not  been  right,  because  it  is  quite  certain  that  the 
change  of  system  that  had  followed  upon  his  death, 
and  the  exclusive  protection  which  to  the  detriment 
of  everything  else,  industry  was  awarded,  during  the 
twenty-two  years  of  Nicholas  II. 's  administration, 
and  especially  during  the  time  that  Mr.  Kokovtsoff 
remained  at  the  Treasury,  darkened  the  judgment  of 
the  people  who  under  different  circumstances,  and 
if  they  had  made  less  money,  would  have  probably 
noticed  the  progress  made  by  socialism,  and  the 
growing  influence  of  the  labour  party  over  its  adher- 


The  Great  Revolution  239 

ents,  who  from  the  outset  had  been  determined  to 
break  this  might  of  capital  which  was  of  no  good  to 
the  country,  and  simply  added  to  the  importance  of 
lucky  speculators. 

As  for  the  Emperor,  he  had  ceased  to  count  for 
anything  in  Russia,  after  the  failure  of  the  so-called 
Constitutional  government,  which  he  had  inaugurated 
rather  out  of  caprice  than  because  he  had  become  con- 
vinced that  it  was  indispensable  to  the  welfare  of 
Russia  to  see  it  ruled  by  a  responsible  Cabinet.  At 
the  time  I  am  referring  to,  it  was  an  acknowledged 
fact  in  the  whole  of  Russia  that  it  was  governed  by 
some  mysterious  and  dark  powers  which  in  secret  were 
proceeding  to  any  amount  of  malversations,  most 
harmful  for  the  prosperity  of  the  nation,  as  well  as 
for  its  prestige  in  Europe.  The  one  general  feeling 
which  prevailed  everywhere  was  one  of  immense  las- 
situde at  a  state  of  things  one  knew  but  too  well 
could  not  last,  but  which  no  one  yet  felt  strong 
enough  to  try  to  ameliorate,  change,  or  overturn.  If 
the  war  had  not  broken  out,  it  is  likely  that  this  con- 
dition, which  hovered  between  a  dream  and  a  night- 
mare, might  have  gone  on  for  a  long  time,  because 
though  the  public  realised  perfectly  well  that  the 
Throne,  as  well  as  the  man  who  occupied  it,  rep- 
resented only  a  dead  thing,  yet  it  appeared  still  so 
immense  that  no  one  dared  to  touch  it,  but  continued 
looking  upon  it,  with  the  same  eyes  one  would  have 
done  had  it  remained  the  great  one  it  had  been  for- 
merly. 

The  war  broke  out  and  awakened  the  nation  out 
of  the  state  of  marasm  into  which  it  had  fallen.    Dur- 


240  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ing  the  first  weeks  which  followed  upon  its  declara- 
tion there  took  place  in  Russia  an  explosion  of  en- 
thusiasm such  as  had  never  been  witnessed  before.  It 
did  not,  however,  last  any  appreciable  length  of  time, 
and  collapsed  together  with  the  news  of  the  reverses 
that  attended  the  Polish  campaign.  Nowhere  were 
these  reverses  felt  more  than  amidst  the  ranks  of  the 
labour  partj^  which,  as  a  direct  consequence  of  them, 
acquired  all  at  once  an  importance  it  had  hardly- 
dared  to  hope  it  could  win  so  soon.  Factories  became 
the  principal  organ  of  the  national  defence,  and  the 
word  "ammunition"  was  transformed  into  the  flag 
under  which  all  those  who  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
government  then  in  power  enrolled  themselves  as 
well  as  the  people  who  longed  for  the  end  of  an  order 
of  things  the  faults  and  mistakes  of  which  were 
known  in  Russia  long  before  they  came  to  be  recog- 
nised abroad.  The  workman  suddenly  became  the 
individual  to  whom  was  awarded  the  greatest  im- 
portance, there  where  the  question  of  the  salvation 
of  the  Fatherland  came  to  be  raised.  He  was 
the  one  to  whom  everybody  said  aloud  what  he 
had  been  himself  aware  of  long  before,  that  it 
was  from  him,  and  from  his  efforts,  that  depended 
victory  over  the  enemy  who  had  audaciously  in- 
vaded Russian  territory.  This  workman  (this  must 
never  be  lost  sight  of)  was  intimately  connected  with 
the  army  in  which  he  had  served,  with  the  army  that 
had  far  more  confidence  in  him,  and  in  his  knowl- 
edge and  efforts,  than  in  the  incapable  government 
that  had  sent  it  to  be  slaughtered  without  providing 
it  with  any  means  to  fight  its  foes.    The  workman  be- 


The  Great  Revolution  241 

came  thus  conscious  of  his  extreme  importance,  and  he 
aspired  to  be  awarded  the  place  in  society  which  he 
imagined  that  he  had  the  right  to  pretend  to.  He 
raised  his  voice,  and  insisted  upon  its  being  listened  to. 
Perhaps  Nicholas  II.  would  still  be  in  possession  of 
his  throne  had  he  had  sufficient  common  sense  to 
do  so.  There  were  at  this  junctm-e  people  who  tried 
to  make  the  Sovereign  understand  that  it  was  not 
enough  for  him  to  have  assumed  the  supreme  com- 
mand over  his  troops  in  order  to  win  back  the  popu- 
larity he  had  so  completely  lost,  and  that  he  would  do 
well,  in  the  interest  of  his  dynasty  as  well  as  in  his 
own,  to  show  himself  more  frequently  to  the  popula- 
tion of  Petrograd,  and  to  try  to  get  into  direct  touch 
with  it  otherwise  than  through  his  official  visits  to  the 
factories  where  ammunition  was  prepared  for  the 
armj^ ;  visits  during  which  he  was  escorted  with  great 
pomp  and  ceremony  by  his  usual  cortege  of  attendants 
and  in  the  course  of  which  he  had  never  found  one 
single  word  of  encouragement  to  say  to  those  who 
were  toiling  for  the  welfare  of  the  Fatherland.  The 
Emperor  failed  to  grasp  the  wisdom  of  this  piece  of 
advice,  nor  did  he  realise  the  importance  of  another 
one,  which  proceeded  from  the  few  friends  he  had 
still  left  to  him,  the  advice  to  call  together  a  na- 
tional and  responsible  Ministry,  composed  of  men 
chosen  among  the  representatives  of  the  country  in 
the  Duma,  and  in  possession  of  the  confidence  of  the 
latter.  He  understood  even  less  the  necessity,  recog- 
nised everywhere  outside  the  gates  of  his  Palace,  to 
try  and  raise  the  prestige  of  the  Crown,  by  getting 
rid  of  the  compromising  personalities,  whose  presence 


242  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

at  his  side  dishonoured  him  as  a  man,  and  discredited 
him  as  a  sovereign.  He  did  not  see,  and  perhaps  no 
one  dared  to  point  out  to  him,  the  shameless  money 
speculations  which  were  taking  place  everywhere  in 
Russia,  and  even  under  his  own  roof;  the  bargaining 
of  everything  that  there  was  to  sell  or  to  buy  in  the 
country;  honours,  dignities,  distinctions,  places,  and 
the  Fatherland  itself,  by  a  gang  of  shameless  adven- 
turers, who  had  found  the  protection  which  they 
needed  to  carry  on  their  plunder  within  the  walls  of 
the  Imperial  residence.  He  believed  what  his  wife 
kept  repeating  to  him,  that  once  he  had  declared  such 
was  not  the  case,  no  one  would  dare  to  think  that  he 
consulted  Rasputin  or  the  metropolitan  Pitirim  in  re- 
gard to  State  aiFairs,  and  he  simply  laughed  at  those 
who  pretended  that  he  was  doing  so.  He  was  blind 
until  the  end.  He  is  perhaps  blind  still,  and  it  is  quite 
possible  that  he  will  persist  in  remaining  so  until  the 
day  when  his  revolted  subjects  will  come  and  claim  his 
life,  after  having  compelled  him  to  surrender  his 
throne.  Unconscious  creature,  unable  to  notice  the 
dangers  amidst  which  he  had  been  living,  or  the  abyss 
that  was  already  swallowing  him  up. 

It  is  when  considering  this  point  that  one  feels 
tempted  to  ask  what  would  have  become  of  Nicholas 
II.  had  he  had  beside  him  one  of  these  intelligent 
women,  endowed  with  a  strong  character,  and  under- 
standing the  nature  of  her  duties  as  a  wife,  as  a  mother 
and  a  sovereign.  It  is  likely  that  if  he  had  found  such 
a  help  he  might  have  prevented  or  at  least  have  con- 
trived to  give  a  different  shape  to  the  crisis  through 
which  Russia  had  to  pass.     The  war  was  an  un- 


The  Great  Revolution  243 

avoidable  misfortune,  owing  to  the  firm  determination 
of  Germany  to  provoke  it,  no  matter  in  what  way,  or 
under  w^hat  pretext,  but  it  would  have  been  possible 
to  conduct  it  differently  than  was  the  case.  One 
could  also  have  been  prepared  for  it,  and  one  ought 
to  have  realised  that  the  old  and  superannuated  sys- 
tem of  government  so  utterly  rotten,  where  every- 
thing was  left  in  the  hands  of  corrupt  functionaries, 
who  had  never  learned  anything  out  of  the  book  of 
history,  for  whom  the  intellectual  development  of  na- 
tions meant  nothing  at  all,  and  who  did  not  look  be- 
yond their  personal  advantages  in  all  the  great  crises 
which  might  come  to  shake  the  equanimity  of  the  coun- 
try, that  this  system  had  served  its  time,  and  was 
bound  to  collapse  under  the  weight  of  the  universal 
contempt.  But  Nicholas  II.  called  together  a  Duma 
which  he  had  determined  beforehand  to  deprive  of 
every  initiative,  and  of  the  liberty  to  say  what  it 
wished  concerning  the  needs  of  the  country  that  had 
entrusted  it  with  the  defence  of  its  interests.  He  made 
many  fine  promises  which  he  never  intended  to  keep, 
and  when  he  spoke  about  the  necessity  of  bringing 
about  a  close  union  between  the  Czar  and  the  rep- 
resentatives of  his  people,  he  never  wished  to  give  to 
the  latter  the  possibility  to  approach  him,  or  to  lay 
their  grievances  at  his  feet.  Had  there  been  in  Rus- 
sia an  Empress  worthy  of  the  name,  and  compe- 
tent to  fill  the  position  she  occupied,  she  would  have 
told  her  husband  that  the  duty  of  them  both  con- 
sisted in  remaining  loyal  towards  their  subjects. 
She  would  have  exposed  her  person,  and  risked  her 
life  if  necessary,  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  task 


244  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

which  had  been  allotted  to  her  by  Providence.  She 
would  have  spent  her  time  otherwise  than  in  the 
practices  of  a  piety  that  was  nothing  else  but  super- 
stition mingled  with  erotic  tendencies. 

What  did  Alexandra  Feodorovna  do  during  those 
solemn  hours  of  a  supreme  crisis?  I  do  not  wish  to 
be  hard  on  her  now  that  misfortune  has  overtaken 
her,  but  the  truth  must  be  told,  and  it  is  necessary  to 
point  out  that  her  principal  preoccupation  during 
the  months  which  preceded  the  Revolution  consisted 
in  defending  Rasputin  against  the  attacks  directed 
against  him  from  all  sides,  and  in  isolating  the  Em- 
peror from  all  the  people  capable  of  enlightening 
him  in  regard  to  the  conduct  and  the  character  of  the 
sinister  personage  whom  her  imagination  had  trans- 
formed into  a  Saint,  and  to  whose  presence  at  her  side 
she  attributed  a  miraculous  power,  capable  of  protect- 
ing her  and  her  family,  against  every  kind  of 
danger.  Under  his  influence  and  thanks  to  the 
impulse  which  he  gave  to  her  activity,  she  applied 
herself  to  persuade  the  Czar  to  conclude  a  separate 
peace  with  Germany,  working  upon  the  humanitarian 
feelings  of  Nicholas  II.,  and  repeating  constantly  to 
him  that  he  owed  it  to  his  subjects  to  put  an  end  to 
a  useless  effusion  of  blood,  and  not  to  go  on  with  a 
perfectly  hopeless  struggle.  If  the  Revolution  had 
not  taken  place  it  is  most  probable  that  a  separate 
peace  would  have  been  signed  between  Russia  and 
Germany  during  the  course  of  the  next  few  months, 
and  it  is  also  likely  that  if  this  intention  of  the  Em- 
press had  not  transpired  outside  the  gates  of  her  Pal- 
ace the  Revolution  would  not  have  broken  out  when  it 


The  Great  Revolution  245 

did,  because  all  the  different  political  parties  in  the 
Duma  were  agreed  as  to  the  advisability  of  putting  it 
off  so  long  as  the  enemy  was  in  occupation  of  a  part  of 
the  country.  But  Alexandra  Feodorovna  poured  the 
last  drops  into  a  glass  which  was  ready  to  overflow, 
and  the  hatred  which  the  Russian  nation  bore  her 
found  at  last  its  justification  in  the  general  opinion 
which  suddenly  exploded  like  a  barrel  of  powder  in 
the  whole  of  the  country,  that  she  also  was  a  traitor, 
who  had  been  won  over  to  the  German  cause,  and 
who  was  ready  to  give  up  into  the  hands  of  the  ad- 
versary against  whom  one  had  been  fighting  for  so 
many  long  and  anxious  months  of  a  struggle  during 
which  so  much  blood  had  flown,  this  Russia  that  had 
offered  her  the  Imperial  diadem,  which  she  had  found 
nothing  better  to  do  than  to  sully  with  the  mud  of  the 
dirty  roads  whither  her  steps  had  taken  her. 

Here  I  must  make  a  pause,  and  try  to  analyse  the 
real  part  played  in  the  drama  by  the  unfortunate  Sov- 
ereign on  the  head  of  whom  so  many  curses  have 
been  showered.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  was  in  order 
to  hand  over  to  her  own  native  country,  the  one  which 
had  become  hers  by  marriage,  that  Alexandra  Feo- 
dorovna lent  herself  to  the  intrigue  in  which  it  is 
unfortunately  an  uncontested  fact  that  she  took  an 
active  share.  It  seems  to  me,  so  far  as  I  can  judge  of 
things  which  did  not  take  place  in  my  presence,  that 
her  intentions  were  sincere  according  to  her  lights. 
She  was  not  an  intelligent  woman  by  any  means, 
and  what  she  possessed  in  the  way  of  intellect  had  dis- 
appeared in  a  vanity  and  haughtiness  of  which  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  form  an  adequate  idea.    She  cared 


246  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

only  for  her  crown,  and  for  autocratic  power  over 
her  subjects,  and  under  the  influence  of  those  who 
represented  to  her  that  the  least  concession  to  the 
spirit  of  the  times  was  bound  to  further  the  cause  of 
a  revolution  which  she  abhorred,  she  had  awarded 
her  protection  to  this  reactionary  party  represented 
by  men  like  Sturmer,  Protopopoff,  and  others  of 
the  same  kind.  She  had  preached  to  her  husband 
whenever  she  had  had  the  opportunity  for  doing  so, 
the  necessity  to  stand  firm,  and  never  to  sacrifice  one 
fraction  of  the  principle  of  absolute  power  over  his 
subjects.  She  had  pointed  out  to  him  on  every  pos- 
sible occasion  the  example  of  Louis  XVI.,  who  had 
been  beheaded,  because  he  had  not  had  sufficient  cour- 
age to  resist  to  the  pressure  exercised  over  him  by  the 
revolutionary  elements  in  the  French  monarchy.  She 
did  not  grasp  in  the  very  least  that  times  were  dif- 
ferent, that  ideas  as  well  as  men  had  changed,  and  that 
a  sovereign  who  in  a  moment  of  danger  does  not  seek 
help  from  his  people,  or  try  together  with  them  to  find 
a  solution  to  the  difficulties  of  a  threatening  situation, 
courts  an  inevitable  ruin.  The  Empress  has,  without 
any  doubt  being  allowed  as  to  this  point,  been  the  di- 
rect cause  of  the  misfortunes  as  well  as  of  the  fall  of 
her  husband,  and  probably  when  history  will  be  called 
upon  to  judge  her,  it  will  show  itself  even  more  severe 
in  regard  to  her  and  to  her  conduct  than  her  contem- 
poraries have  been,  because  she  has  certainly  done 
more  to  destroy  the  respect  of  Russia  for  the  throne  to 
which  she  had  been  raised  than  the  most  violent  revo- 
lutionary attacks  that  were  ever  directed  against  it. 
Instead  of  trying  to  bring  her  consort  nearer  to  the 


The  Great  Revolution  247 

nation  at  whose  head  he  stood,  she  only  inspired  him 
with  suspicions  and  even  with  dishke  for  this  nation, 
or  at  least  for  the  best  among  its  representatives. 

There  happened  circumstances  when  the  Empress 
interfered  directly  in  the  affairs  of  the  State,  and  per- 
suaded the  Czar  to  do  what  she  required  of  him; 
as,  for  instance,  the  exile  in  Siberia,  this  Siberia 
whither  she  was  to  be  sent  herself,  and  the  arbitrary 
arrest  of  several  leaders  of  the  labour  party,  whom, 
under  some  futile  pretext  or  other,  the  government 
threw  into  prison  a  few  weeks  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  Revolution,  in  spite  of  the  indignant  protesta- 
tions made  by  the  Duma  on  the  subject.  It  was  also 
Alexandra  Feodorovna,  who,  on  the  advice  of  the 
metropolitan  Pitirim,  a  creature  of  Rasputin,  who 
had  caused  him  to  be  appointed  to  the  See  of  Petro- 
grad,  the  most  important  one  in  the  Empire,  per- 
suaded the  Emperor  to  follow  the  advice  of  the 
minister  Protopopoff  to  prorogue  the  Duma,  and  to 
arm  the  police  with  machine  guns,  in  view  of  a  pos- 
sible revolt  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  capital  against 
the  government,  a  fatal  and  most  imprudent  measure, 
if  there  ever  was  one,  which  decided  the  fate  of  the 
Romanoff  dynasty. 

In  this  last  occurrence,  it  was  less  out  of  fear  of 
the  debates  that  might  take  place  in  the  Duma,  than 
because  he  wanted  to  have  his  hands  untied  in  regard 
to  the  conclusion  of  peace  for  which  he  had  been  work- 
ing ever  since  he  had  been  called  to  the  ministry  of  the 
interior,  that  Protopopoff  induced  his  Sovereign  to 
resort  to  a  measure  absolutely  devoid  of  common  sense, 
and  the  only  effect  of  which  could  be  to  add  fuel  to 


248  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

a  fire  that  had  been  smouldering  for  months,  if  not 
years.  It  proved  fatal  for  everybody,  and  it  is  still  a 
question  whether  it  was  not  to  be  more  fatal  for  Rus- 
sia than  anything  else  which  Nicholas  II.  had  ever 
done,  because  it  has  thrown  her  into  an  era  of  revolu- 
tion and  of  trouble,  for  which  she  was  neither  pre- 
pared nor  ripe. 

At  that  time  I  am  writing  about,  the  members  of 
the  Imperial  family  together  with  the  aristocracy 
were  beginning  to  get  more  and  more  alarmed  at  the 
manner  in  which  events  were  unfolding  themselves, 
and  were  wondering  as  to  what  could  be  done  to  put 
an  end  to  the  influence  of  the  Empress  and  of  her 
favourites.  One  of  the  oldest,  and  the  only  surviving 
personal  friend  of  the  late  Czar  Alexander  III., 
Count  VorontzofF  DachkoiF,  when  he  visited  the  Em- 
peror to  take  leave  of  him,  on  his  resignation  of  the 
functions  of  Viceroy  of  the  Caucasus,  had  tried  to 
remonstrate  with  him  on  the  subject,  and  to  point  out 
to  him  the  necessity  of  getting  rid  of  Rasputin  and 
of  the  followers  of  the  latter.  He  had  known  Nich- 
olas II.  as  a  child,  and  he  could  therefore  talk  with  him 
more  familiarly  than  any  one  else  in  Russia:  "I  must 
tell  you  the  truth,"  he  said.  "Do  you  know  that, 
thanks  to  your  Rasputin,  you  are  going  to  your  ruin 
and  endangering  the  throne  of  your  son?"  The  old 
soldier,  who  had  served  under  four  sovereigns,  be- 
came quite  eloquent  in  his  speech.  The  Czar  lis- 
tened to  him  in  silence,  and  at  last  exclaimed  almost 
with  a  sob:  "Why  did  God  lay  upon  me  such  a 
heavy  burden?" 

After  Count  Vorontzoff,  the  Dowager  Empress 


The  Great  Revolution  249 

Marie  Feodorovna  tried  to  do  something  to  save  her 
son.  She  had  left  Petrograd  months  before,  not  caring 
to  live  in  the  vicinity  of  her  daughter-in-law,  whom 
she  disliked  as  much  as  did  the  other  members  of  the 
Imperial  family.  When  Nicholas  II.  visited  Kieff  in 
October,  1916,  where  his  mother  was  residing,  the  lat- 
ter had  a  long  conversation  with  him,  in  which  she 
pointed  out  to  him  the  peril  which  threatened  him 
and  the  dynasty,  unless  he  decided  upon  an  ener- 
getic step,  and  removed  from  her  side  the  favourites 
of  his  wife.  But  even  Marie  Feodorovna  was  power- 
less in  presence  of  the  dark  and  occult  powers  that 
held  her  son  in  their  trammels,  and  nothing  followed 
upon  her  remonstrances  or  her  adjurations  that  he 
might  consider  the  dangers  with  which  he  was  sur- 
rounded, and  try  at  least  to  conjure  them. 

After  this  interference  of  the  widow  of  Alexander 
III.,  some  of  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  who  were 
not  of  the  same  opinions  as  Messrs.  Sturmer  and 
ProtopopofF,  attempted  to  reason  with  their  Sover- 
eign, among  others  Count  Ignatieff  and  Mr.  Bark, 
but  they  were  also  not  listened  to,  and  the  former  at 
last  handed  in  his  resignation  which  was  accepted  with 
alacrity,  Alexandra  Feodorovna  not  trying  even  to 
hide  the  extreme  satisfaction  she  felt  at  its  having 
taken  place. 

Count  IgnatieiF  had  been  the  most  popular  min- 
ister of  public  instruction  Russia  had  ever  known,  and 
his  departure  was  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  a  na- 
tional misfortune,  adding  to  the  dislike  with  which 
the  Empress  was  viewed  everywhere.  Mr.  Bark  did 
not  feel  himself  at  liberty  to  abandon  the  department 


250  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

of  finances  of  which  he  had  the  charge  at  the  very- 
moment  when  a  new  loan  was  being  floated,  but  he 
avoided  seeing  the  consort  of  his  Sovereign,  and  only 
appeared  at  Tsarskoie  Selo,  when  he  could  not  help 
doing  so. 

On  the  1st  of  November,  1916,  one  of  the  cousins 
of  the  Czar,  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  Michaylo- 
vitsch,  who  was  perhaps  the  cleverest  member  of  the 
Imperial  family,  a  man  wonderfully  well  learned,  and 
who  had  acquired  the  reputation  of  an  excellent  his- 
torian, thanks  to  the  remarkable  studies  which  he  had 
published  on  the  life  and  times  of  Alexander  I.,  and 
the  Napoleonic  wars,  made  another  effort  to  shake 
the  influence  of  Rasputin,  Protopopoff  and  the  Em- 
press. He  asked  the  Czar  to  receive  him,  and  during 
a  long  and  heated  conversation  which  he  had  with  the 
latter,  he  read  to  him  a  letter  which  he  had  prepared 
beforehand,  in  which  were  exposed  not  only  the  polit- 
ical, but  also  the  private  reasons,  which  made  it  an 
imperative  necessity  to  remove  Rasputin  from  Tsar- 
skoie Selo.  As  the  Grand  Duke  told  his  friends 
later  on,  there  were  in  this  letter  some  passages  that 
might  have  wounded  Nicholas  II.  in  his  feelings  as  a 
husband,  not  only  as  a  sovereign.  But  the  Czar  did 
not  reply  one  single  word,  only  went  to  fetch  the  Em- 
press, and  in  his  turn  read  to  her  the  incriminating 
epistle.  When  he  reached  the  passage  in  which  re- 
marks were  made  concerning  her,  Alexandra  Feo- 
dorovna  rose  up  in  a  passion,  and  snatching  the  docu- 
ment out  of  her  husband's  hands,  she  tore  it  up  into  a 
thousand  small  pieces.  In  the  course  of  this  memor- 
able conversation,  the  Grand  Duke  asked  the  Em- 


The  Great  Revolution  251 

peror  whether  he  knew  that  the  api:)ointment  of  Proto- 
popoiF  was  the  work  of  Rasputin,  with  whom  the 
former  had  become  acquainted  at  the  house  of  one 
of  their  common  friends,  a_  certain  Badmaieff. 

"Yes,"  replied  the  Czar,  "I  know  it." 

"And  you  find  this  a  matter  of  course,"  exclaimed 
his  cousin. 

Nicholas  II.  replied  nothing. 

In  spite  of  the  angry  tone  which  the  discussion  had 
assumed,  the  Emperor  remained  perfectly  civil 
to  the  Grand  Duke.  The  latter  afterwards  re- 
marked that  he  had  been  more  than  surprised  to  meet 
with  such  utter  indifference,  and  at  the  same  time 
such  kindness,  in  appearance  at  least,  from  his  cousin. 
It  seemed  as  if  nothing  that  he  could  say  could  move 
the  Czar,  who,  during  the  most  heated  moments  of 
this  interview,  handed  the  matches  to  his  kinsman, 
when  he  noticed  that  the  cigarette  of  the  latter  had 
gone  out.  At  last  the  Grand  Duke  exclaimed: 
"You  have  got  Cossacks  here,  and  a  gi-eat  deal  of 
room  in  your  gardens.  You  can  have  me  killed  and 
buried  without  any  one  being  the  wiser  for  it.  But 
I  must  tell  you  the  truth,  and  say  to  you  that  you  are 
going  to  your  ruin." 

The  Czar  continued  to  be  silent,  and  his  cousin  had 
to  take  his  leave,  without  having  been  able  to  obtain 
one  single  word  from  him  by  which  he  might  have 
guessed  whether  he  had  been  believed  or  not. 

The  confessor  of  the  Imperial  family.  Father  Scha- 
belsky,  was  induced  to  interfere  in  his  turn,  and  to 
warn  the  Emperor  of  the  ever  increasing  unpopularity 
of  his  consort,  advising  him  at  the  same  time  to  send 


252  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

her  somewhere  for  the  benefit  of  her  health,  until  the 
storm  had  abated  which  everybody  except  the  few  peo- 
ple who  surrounded  the  Sovereign  saw  was  on  its  way. 
His  advice  also  was  disregarded.  A  lady  belonging 
to  the  highest  social  circles,  whose  family  had  always 
been  upon  terms  of  intimacy  with  that  of  Nicholas  II., 
the  Princess  VassiltschikofF,  bethought  herself  to 
write  to  the  Empress,  and  to  entreat  her  to  save  the 
country  and  the  dynasty,  and  to  induce  her  husband 
to  call  together  a  responsible  ministry,  in  possession 
of  the  confidence  of  the  Duma  and  of  the  nation. 
The  only  reply  which  she  received  was  an  order  com- 
manding her  to  leave  the  capital  immediately  for  her 
country  seat,  with  a  prohibition  to  return  to  it  again. 
Alexandra  Feodorovna  remained  the  only  person  the 
Czar  would  listen  to,  and  Alexandra  Feodorovna  was 
but  the  mouthpiece  of  people  like  Rasputin,  Sturmer, 
and  Protopopoff ,  who  kept  telling  to  her  that  she  must 
not  yield,  and  that  the  only  thing  capable  of  restoring 
peace  to  Russia  was  to  subdue  the  rebellious  spirits 
who  dared  talk  about  the  necessity  of  making  conces- 
sions to  public  opinion,  coupled  with  the  firm  determi- 
nation to  crush,  even  by  force,  any  manifestations 
which  might  be  made  in  that  direction.  Acting  upon 
this  advice,  the  Empress  assumed  a  power  which  had 
never  belonged  to  any  consort  of  a  sovereign  before. 
In  the  absence  of  Nicholas  II.  at  tiie  front,  it  was  she 
who  gave  out  orders,  not  only  to  the  different  min- 
isters, but  also  to  the  troops  composing  the  garrison 
of  Petrograd;  she  had  people  arrested  according  to 
her  fancy,  she  caused  the  houses  of  others  that  had 
displeased  her  to  be  searched  by  the  numerous  police 


The  Great  Revolution  253 

agents  whom  she  had  at  her  disposal,  ready  to  exe- 
cute any  of  her  caprices ;  she  showed  herself  the  abso- 
lute master  in  her  consort's  dominions,  and  she  held 
everybody,  including  himself,  in  a  firm  grasp,  which 
(this  must  be  added)  was  more  the  grasp  of  Ras- 
putin and  Protopopoff,  than  her  own. 

It  was  evident  that  such  a  state  of  things  could  not 
go  on  indefinitely.  There  were  still  some  persons  left 
who  hoped  to  be  able  to  save  the  dynasty  by  removing 
its  principal  enemy,  the  unscrupulous  peasant  who 
had  tarnished  its  prestige.  A  plot,  into  which  en- 
tered different  persons  belonging  to  the  highest  aris- 
tocracy of  the  land  as  well  as  some  members  of  the 
Imperial  family,  was  arranged,  and  culminated,  as  I 
have  already  related,  in  the  murder  of  Rasputin.  All 
this  has  been  told,  but  what  has  not  yet  been  written  is 
the  manner  ui  which  the  news  of  the  assassination  of 
her  favourite  was  received  by  the  Empress.  At  first 
her  despair  was  pitiable  to  behold,  then  she  quickly 
rallied,  and  getting  back  her  energy,  proceeded  to 
avenge  her  murdered  friend.  The  Czar  was  at  Head- 
quarters, and  she  happened  to  find  herself  alone  with 
her  children  at  Tsarskoie  Selo.  She  sent  for  one  of  her 
husband's  aide  de  camps.  General  Maximovitsch,  and 
commanded  him  to  proceed  immediately  to  Petrograd, 
and  to  arrest  the  Grand  Duke  Dmitry  Pavlovitsch, 
allowing  him,  however,  to  remain  in  his  own  palace, 
but  with  strict  orders  not  to  leave  it,  even  for  a  short 
walk.  The  whole  Imperial  family  protested,  but  it 
was  of  no  avail.  Mr.  Protopopoff  was  on  the  side  of 
the  Czarina,  and  he  alone  was  in  command  of  the  po- 
lice forces  of  the  capital.    Any  thought  of  resistance 


254  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

was  out  of  the  question.  The  hated  minister  would 
not  have  hesitated  to  proceed,  even  against  the  rela- 
tives of  his  Sovereign,  to  gratify  the  revengeful  feel- 
ings of  Alexandra  Feodorovna. 

How  vindictive  the  latter  showed  herself  to  be  can 
be  seen  out  of  the  severity  of  the  punishments  which, 
at  her  instigation,  were  showered  upon  all  those  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  conspiracy  to  which  Rasputin 
had  fallen  a  victim.  Prince  Youssoupoff,  with  his 
wife,  was  exiled  in  one  of  his  properties  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  Koursk,  and  the  young  Grand  Duke 
Dmitry  was  ordered  to  proceed  to  the  front  in  Persia, 
which,  considering  his  delicate  state  of  health,  was 
tantamount  to  a  death  sentence.  When  this  became 
known,  the  whole  of  the  Imperial  family  wrote  to  the 
Czar  in  the  following  terms: 

"May  it  please  Your  Majesty,  we,  whose  signatures 
you  will  find  at  the  bottom  of  this  letter,  urgently 
and  strongly  beg  of  you  to  reconsider  your  decision 
in  regard  to  the  Grand  Duke  Dmitry  Pavlovitsch, 
and  show  him  some  leniency.  We  know  for  a  fact  that 
he  is  physically  ill,  and  morally  broken  down.  You 
have  been  his  guardian  in  his  youth,  and  you  are  aware 
of  the  deep  feelings  of  affection  and  of  respect  that 
he  has  always  entertained  in  regard  to  you,  and  to 
our  Fatherland.  We  implore  Your  Majesty  in  view 
of  his  youth,  and  of  the  precarious  state  of  his  health, 
to  allow  him  to  repair  either  to  his  own  estate  of 
Oussoff,  or  else  to  Vilensky. 

"Your  Majesty  is  probably  aware  of  the  terrible 
conditions  in  which  our  army  finds  itself  placed  in 
Persia  at  the  present  moment,  and  of  the  many  ill- 


The  Great  Revolution  255 

nesses  and  epidemics  of  all  kinds  that  are  raging 
there.  To  expose  the  Grand  Duke  to  those  dangers 
is  simply  compassing  his  ruin,  because  he  can  only 
come  out  of  such  a  trial  a  physical  and  moral  wreck, 
and  surely  the  kind  heart  of  Your  Majesty  will  take 
pity  on  a  youth  for  whom  you  have  had  some  affec- 
tion in  the  j)ast,  and  in  regard  to  whom  you  have  al- 
ways shown  yourself  a  kind  father.  We  pray  to  God 
to  soften  the  feelings  of  Your  Majesty,  and  to  in- 
duce you  to  alter  your  decision,  and  to  show  some 
mercy  to  your  own  kinsman." 

To  this  letter  was  received  on  the  next  day  the 
following  reply : 

"No  one  has  the  right  to  commit  a  murder.  I 
am  aware  that  many  people  are  suffering  now  from 
qualms  of  conscience,  because  it  is  not  only  Dmitiy 
Pavlovitsch  who  is  mixed  up  in  this  business.  I  am 
surprised  at  your  daring  to  address  me  in  such  terms. 
Nicholas." 

The  Grand  Duke  had  to  submit.  He  departed  for 
the  Persian  front,  accompanied  by  an  officer  who  had 
received  strict  orders  to  oppose  any  attempt  that  he 
might  feel  tempted  to  make,  in  order  to  escape 
his  doom.  A  curious  incident,  very  characteristic  of 
the  state  of  mind  prevailing  in  the  capital  at  that 
time,  then  occurred.  The  comrades  of  this  officer, 
upon  hearing  of  his  appointment,  obliged  him  to  re- 
sign his  commission,  considering  that  he  had  disgraced 
himself  by  accepting  such  a  mission. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  body  of  Rasputin  was  taken 
at  night  to  Tsarskoie  Selo  and  buried  in  a  small  chapel 
which  had  been  erected  some  years  before  by  the  Em- 


256  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

press,  quite  close  to  the  palace  which  she  inhabited. 
Troops  surrounded  it  so  as  to  prevent  any  one  getting 
near  to  it,  whilst  the  ceremony  lasted,  and  the  funeral 
was  attended  by  the  Emperor,  the  Empress,  and  the 
intimate  friend  of  the  latter,  Madame  Vyroubieva. 
Alexandra  Feodorovna  used  to  go  every  afternoon  to 
pray  on  the  grave  of  the  man  whose  influence  had 
proved  her  bane,  until  at  last  the  Revolution  empris- 
oned  her,  and  threw  to  the  winds  the  ashes  of  the 
greatest  enemy  that  the  dynasty  of  the  Romanoffs 
had  ever  known.  When  the  body  was  exhumed  by 
the  angry  populace,  one  found  on  its  breast  a  sacred 
image,  bearing  the  names  of  the  Empress,  and  of  her 
three  daughters,  last  memento  of  an  affection  which 
had  proved  so  fatal  to  those  who  had  nursed  it. 

The  murder  of  Rasputin  had  one  very  clear  and 
definite  object,  that  of  ridding  the  Czar  of  an  indi- 
vidual who  had  sullied  his  honour.  Those  who  were 
courageous  enough  to  send  him  into  eternity  had 
nursed  the  hope  that  once  this  evil  influence  had  dis- 
appeared, the  counsels  of  wisdom  would  prevail,  and 
Nicholas  II.  might  be  at  last  brought  to  understand 
that  his  duty  required  of  him  to  look  bravely  into  the 
face  of  the  situation  in  which  he  had  been  thrown  to- 
gether with  the  Empire  over  which  he  ruled.  Until 
that  time,  no  one  had  been  able  to  talk  seriously  with 
him,  with  hopes  of  being  listened  to.  The  Emperor 
had  acquired  the  habit  of  never  giving  an  immediate 
reply  to  any  proposition  that  was  submitted  to  him, 
but  deferred  his  decisions,  in  order  to  discuss  them 
first  with  the  Empress,  who  in  her  turn  consulted  her 
favourites  Sturmer  and  Protopopoff,  who  had  taken 


The  Great  Revolution  257 

to  a  certain  extent  the  place  left  empty  by  Rasputin's 
disappearance.  They  were  all  of  them  working  to- 
gether towards  the  conclusion  of  a  separate  peace 
with  Germany,  because  they  believed  that  if  once  this 
were  achieved  they  would  be  able  to  recall  the  army 
from  the  front,  and  to  use  it  against  the  Duma  and 
the  nation,  establishing  with  its  help  upon  a  sounder 
and  firmer  base  their  own  power  and  might.  None 
among  them  gave  a  thought  to  the  possibility  that  the 
troops  might  practise  with  the  people,  and  work  to- 
gether with  it  towards  the  downfall  of  the  govern- 
ment and  of  the  dynasty. 

This  desire  of  the  Empress  to  bring  about,  no  mat- 
ter at  what  cost,  the  ending  of  the  war,  was  suspected 
by  a  good  many  people.  A  few  officers  in  possession 
of  important  commands  had  an  inkling  of  it,  and  the 
leaders  of  the  labour  party  had  also  heard  about 
it.  The  last  named,  whc  had  worked  more  than  any 
other  class  of  the  nation  for  the  continuation  of  the 
struggle  in  the  material  sense  of  the  word,  and  who 
wanted  to  avenge  their  sons  fallen  before  the  enemy, 
became  anxious  at  the  possibility  of  such  a  peace 
being  concluded;  and  very  distinct  threats  were  ut- 
tered not  only  in  Petrograd,  but  all  over  Russia, 
against  the  Ministers,  the  Emperor,  and  especially  the 
Empress.  This  explains,  apart  from  other  reasons, 
why  the  murder  of  Rasputin  was  hailed  with  such 
joy.  One  hoped  that  his  removal  would  put  an  end 
to  a  state  of  things  out  of  which  could  only  result  dis- 
aster, shame  and  misfortune. 

Unfortunately  things  turned  out  quite  differently. 
Alexandra  Feodorovna  declared  that  she  considered  it 


258  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

her  duty  to  go  on  doing  exactly  what  her  dead  and 
gone  friend  had  advised  her  to  do,  and  the  partisans 
of  a  separate  peace  with  Germany  found  in  her  a 
more  sohd  protection  than  the  one  they  had  en- 
joyed before.  She  pursued  unmercifully  all  those 
who  had  tried  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  Emperor,  and 
the  first  thing  she  did,  after  having  seen  the  Grand 
Duke  Dmitry  sent  to  Persia  and  Prince  Youssoupoff 
exiled,  was  to  cause  the  Czar  to  write  to  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas  Michaylovitsch,  who  had  addressed 
to  him  the  letter  which  had  incensed  her  so  ter- 
ribly, and  command  him  to  leave  Petrograd  and 
repair  for  two  months  to  an  estate  which  he  owned  in 
the  South  of  Russia,  in  the  government  of  Kherson. 
This  order  was  brought  to  the  Grand  Duke  by  an 
Imperial  messenger,  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1916, 
at  half  past  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  It  was  written 
entirely  in  the  Emperor's  hand,  and  was  couched  in 
the  following  terms:  "I  command  you  to  start  at 
once  for  Grouchevka,  and  to  remain  there  two  months. 
Nicholas."  But  there  was  added  a  postscript  that  had 
been  probably  written  without  the  Empress's  knowl- 
edge, under  the  vague  feeling  of  remorse  for  such  an 
unjustifiable  action,  and  which  said:  "I  beg  you  to  do 
what  I  ask  you."  Other  Grand  Dukes  attempted  in 
their  turn  to  shake  the  influence  of  Alexandra  Feo- 
dorovna,  and  to  point  out  to  the  Czar  the  peril  which 
it  represented  for  the  dynasty.  Many  angry  scenes 
took  place  at  Tsarskoie  Selo,  between  them  and  the 
master  of  this  Imperial  place,  but  they  all  led  to  noth- 
ing, and  when  the  wife  of  the  Grand  Duke  Cyril,  the 
Grand  Duchess  Victoria  Feodorovna,  sought  the  Sov- 


The  Great  Revolution  259 

ereign  on  Her  own  initiative,  and  tried  to  make  him 
realise  the  great  unpopularity  of  his  consort,  Nicholas 
II.  interrupted  her  with  the  exclamation:  "What  has 
Alice  got  to  do  with  politics?  She  is  only  a  sister  of 
mercy,  and  nothing  else.  And  in  regard  to  her  so- 
called  unpopularity,  what  you  say  is  not  exact." 

He  then  proceeded  to  show  his  cousin  any 
amount  of  letters  emanating  from  wounded  soldiers, 
who  thanked  the  Empress  for  the  care  which  she  had 
taken  of  them,  letters  of  which  not  a  single  one  was 
genuine,  and  which  had  been  manufactured  at  the  in- 
stigation of  Sturmer  and  ProtopopofF.  The  truth  of 
the  matter  was  that  the  wounded  and  sick  in  the  dif- 
ferent hospitals  visited  by  Alexandra  Feodorovna,  did 
not  at  all  harbour  kind  feelings  in  regard  to  her,  as 
they  reproached  her  with  giving  all  her  care  and  atten- 
tion to  the  German  prisoners,  to  the  detriment  of  her 
own  soldiers.  And  among  other  stories  which  were 
related  concerning  those  visits  of  hers,  there  was  one 
which  had  obtained  a  wide  circulation.  It  was  re- 
lated that  one  day  the  Empress,  talking  to  a  wounded 
officer  who  had  been  brought  to  her  own  hospital  at 
Tsarskoie  Selo,  had  asked  him  the  name  of  the  Ger- 
man regiment  against  which  he  had  been  fighting.  The 
officer  had  replied  that  it  was  a  Hessian  regiment, 
upon  which  Alexandra  Feodorovna  had  turned  her 
back  upon  him,  and  had  left  the  room  in  a  violent 
rage  which  she  had  not  even  tried  to  control  or  to  dis- 
simulate. 

The  Grand  Duchess  Victoria  was  not  discouraged 
by  the  manner  in  which  her  disclosures  had  been  re- 
ceived by  Nicholas  II.,  and  she  had  attempted  to  dis- 


26o  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

cuss  the  subject  with  the  Empress,  but  the  latter,  at 
her  first  words,  had  stopped  her  with  the  remark: 
"The  people  whom  you  advise  us  to  take  into  our  con- 
fidence, are  the  enemies  of  the  dynasty.  I  have  been 
for  twenty-two  years  upon  the  throne,  and  I  know 
Russia  well.  We  are  beloved  by  the  nation,  and  no 
one  will  ever  dare  raise  his  hand  against  us.  All  this 
opposition  about  which  you  are  talking  proceeds  from 
a  few  aristocratic  bridge  players,  and  is  devoid  of  any 
importance."  After  this,  there  was  nothing  to  be  done 
but  to  allow  events  to  take  their  course,  and  to  pro- 
ceed. 

They  were  to  develop  far  quicker  than  one  could 
have  imagined.  The  army  had  begun  to  discuss 
the  position,  and  to  comment  upon  it.  Every  one 
who  had  watched  the  march  of  affairs  during  the  last 
months,  felt  that  something  was  going  to  happen,  but 
no  one  knew  what  it  would  be,  or  wished  even  to  know 
it,  so  general  was  the  discouragement  that  had  taken 
hold  of  the  public  mind.  There  was,  however,  one 
factor  left,  which  towered  over  the  whole  of  the  situa- 
tion ;  that  was  the  sincere  desire  on  the  part  of  the  dif- 
ferent political  parties  to  try  and  keep  back  as  long 
as  possible  a  crisis  which  was  recognised  to  have  be- 
come inevitable,  but  which  no  one  wished  to  see  has- 
tened. This  feeling  was  such  a  general  one  that  a 
member  of  the  Duma,  who  for  family  reasons  had 
come  for  a  few  days  to  Stockholm  where  I  was  resid- 
ing at  the  time  just  before  the  Revolution,  told  me 
that  no  one  had  been  more  surprised  than  he  when 
the  news  had  reached  him  that  it  had  broken  out,  be- 
cause, though  he  had  been  convinced  it  was  going 


The  Great  Revolution  261 

to  produce  itself,  yet  he  had  never  believed  that  it 
could  take  place  so  soon. 

Whilst  this  fearful  storm  was  brooding  on  the 
horizon  and  getting  nearer  and  nearer  to  him  with 
each  day  that  passed,  Nicholas  II.  refused  to  listen 
to  the  thunder  which  was  already  resounding  close  to 
his  ears,  and  was  getting  more  and  more  determined 
to  persist  in  the  fatal  resolution  of  holding  his  own 
against  the  tempest,  and  if  necessary  of  using  force 
in  order  to  conjure  and  to  subdue  it.  If  ever  the  old 
Latin  proverb,  "Quod  Deus  vult  perdere,  prius  dem- 
entat,"  has  ever  been  realised,  it  was  in  the  case  of 
this  unfortunate  Sovereign,  who  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  an  ambitious,  cold  woman,  devoid  of  intelli- 
gence and  of  scruples,  and  incapable  of  appreciating 
the  character  of  the  people  over  whom  she  had  been 
called  upon  to  reign,  and  of  whom  she  had  been  un- 
able to  conquer  either  the  esteem,  the  respect  or  the 
aif  ection,  during  the  quarter  of  a  century  that  she 
had  lived  in  its  midst. 


CHAPTER  m 

This  discredited  Monarch,  and  his  hated  and  de- 
spised Empress,  by  whom  were  they  surrounded  dur- 
ing those  eventful  days  which  preceded  their  fall?  Who 
were  the  people  whom  they  trusted,  and  on  whom  they 
relied?  .Whom  do  we  see  advising  them?  Only  a  hand- 
ful of  flatterers,  of  sycophants,  always  ready  to  turn 
against  him  and  to  betray  them  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity, together  with  Ministers  devoid  of  any  political 
sense,  and  without  any  knowledge  or  comprehension 
of  the  position  into  which  the  country  had  been  al- 
lowed to  drift;  without  any  courage  or  energy,  in- 
capable of  imposing  themselves  or  their  opinions  upon 
the  masses,  and  of  convincing  them  of  the  soundness 
of  their  views;  incapable  even  of  subduing  these 
masses  by  the  use  of  sheer  force.  Apart  from  these 
flatterers  and  these  w^ak  advisers,  whom  could  Nich- 
olas II.  and  his  Consort  trust  and  believe  in?  Whom 
had  they  got  beside  them  ?  A  discontented  army,  that 
was  too  thoroughly  weary  of  seeing  itself  neglected 
and  passed  over  like  a  negligible  quantity,  whilst  it 
was  fighting  for  dear  life  on  the  frontiers,  and  who  had 
lost  all  wish  to  go  on  with  what  appeared  to  it  to  have 
become  a  hopeless  stmggle;  a  few  functionaries  who 
eared  for  nothing  but  their  own  advantage  or  advance- 
ment ;  a  handful  of  adventurers  in  quest  of  places,  in- 
fluence and  riches,  especially  of  the  latter;  a  police 

262 


The  Great  Revolution  263 

always  ready  to  listen  to  every  kind  of  low  denuncia- 
tion; that  had  abused  its  power,  that  had  destroyed, 
thanks  to  its  criminal  activity,  every  sense  of  personal 
security  in  the  nation,  and  that  prosecuted  only  those 
who  did  not  pay  it  sufficiently  to  leave  them  alone. 
Blackmailers,  spies,  and  valets ;  this  was  all  that  was 
left  to  the  Czar  of  All  the  Russias,  to  watch  over  him. 
They  were  the  only  people  on  whom  he  could  rely,  and 
even  they  would  only  remain  faithful  to  him  as  long 
as  the  supreme  power  would  remain,  at  least  nom- 
inally, in  his  hands.  His  family,  as  we  have  seen, 
detested  the  Empress,  and  was  ready  and  prepared  to 
side  against  him  on  the  first  notice  of  his  downfall, 
which  it  effectively  did.  What  was  left  in  Petrograd 
of  aristocracy  had  withdrawn  itself  from  him,  lament- 
ing over  evils  which  it  knew  itself  powerless  to  allay, 
and  had  come  to  the  sad  conclusion  that  the  further 
it  kept  from  Tsarskoie  Selo  the  better  it  would  be  for 
everybody.  The  Emperor  stood  alone,  forsaken  by 
all  those  who  under  different  circumstances  would 
have  considered  themselves  but  too  honoured  to  die 
for  him,  let  alone  defend  him  against  his  foes.  Alex- 
andra Feodorovna  had  created  a  desert  around  her 
husband,  and,  thanks  to  her,  there  was  hardly  a  Rus- 
sian left  in  the  world  who  did  not  for  some  reason 
or  other  curse  the  Sovereign  whom  Providence  had 
destined  to  become  in  all  human  probability  the  last 
of  the  Romanoffs  crowned  in  Moscow.  Nicholas  II. 
imagined  that  he  could  rely  on  the  devotion  and  the 
loyalty  of  his  army.  He  forgot  that  this  army  was  no 
longer  the  one  that  had  acclaimed  him  with  such  en- 
thusiasm at  the  beginning  of  the  war.    Most  of  the 


264  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

officers  who  had  been  in  command  of  it  at  the  time 
had  fallen  on  some  battle  field  or  other;  the  soldiers 
too  had  disappeared,  and  the  young  recruits  who  had 
taken  their  place  had  been  reared  in  difi^erent  ideas, 
and  were  ignorant  of  the  old  discipline  which  had  in- 
spired the  former  regiments  whose  original  contin- 
gents had  been  slain.  The  army  had  become  a  national 
one  from  the  Imperialist  it  had  been  before;  it  was 
composed  of  the  same  elements  of  discontented  minds 
who  before  they  had  been  called  to  the  colours  had 
freely  discussed  the  conditions  under  which  the  war 
was  being  fought,  and  who  had  noticed  better  than  it 
would  have  been  possible  for  them  to  do  at  the  front, 
the  mistakes  of  those  in  command,  the  remorse- 
less dilapidation  of  the  Public  Exchequer  which  was 
going  on  everywhere,  together  with  all  the  faults  and 
the  carelessness  that  had  brought  about  all  the  disas- 
ters which  had  fallen  upon  the  nation.  This  army 
could  no  longer  nurse,  in  regard  to  the  Czar,  the  ven- 
eration and  almost  religious  respect  which  had  ani- 
mated it  in  earlier  days.  It  had  perceived  at  last  that 
he  was  not  at  the  height  of  the  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities which  had  devolved  upon  him,  and  as  a  natural 
consequence  of  the  fall  of  the  scales  from  its  eyes  it 
had  sided  against  him,  together  with  the  Duma,  from 
which  it  was  hoping  and  expecting  the  salvation 
which  its  masters  of  the  present  hour  were  unable  to 
procure  for  it. 

But  whilst  the  whole  of  Russia  was  aware  of  this 
state  of  things,  Nicholas  II.  alone  refused  to  see  it. 
He  felt  afraid  of  appearing  as  the  weak  man  that  he 
really  was ;  he  refused  aU  the  urgent  entreaties  which 


The  Great  Revolution  265 

were  addressed  to  him,  to  appeal  to  his  people,  and  to 
appoint  a  popular  and  responsible  JNIinistry,  capable 
once  he  had  called  it  to  power  of  requiring  from  him 
the  fulfilment  of  his  former  promises,  which  he  had 
determined  beforehand  never  to  keep.  He  threw 
himself  from  right  to  left,  and  from  left  to  right,  in 
quest  of  councillors  after  his  own  heart,  or  rather  after 
the  heart  of  the  Empress,  because  it  was  she  who  final- 
ly decided  everything;  and  he  changed  his  Minis- 
ters with  a  facility  which  was  the  more  deplorable  that 
those  of  the  morrow  did  not  differ  from  the  ones  whom 
he  had  dismissed  the  day  before,  until  at  last,  thanks 
to  his  irresolution  and  to  his  obstinacy,  he  contrived 
to  discredit,  not  only  in  Russia,  but  also  abroad  and 
among  his  Allies,  the  government  of  which  he  was 
the  head,  together  with  his  own  person  and  the  great 
Imperial  might  which  he  personified.  At  last  even 
the  extreme  conservative  parties,  who  until  then  had 
been  on  his  side,  joined  the  ranks  of  his  enemies,  and 
this  defection  of  theirs  made  the  disaster  an  irremedi- 
able one,  and  the  fatal  catastrophe  inevitable. 

England  at  this  moment  made  an  effort  to  save  the 
Czar,  together  with  his  dynasty.  Lord  Milner,  who 
had  repaired  to  Petrograd  to  attend  the  conference  of 
the  Allies  which  was  being  held  there,  tried  to  open 
the  eyes  of  Nicholas  II.  as  to  the  dangers  which  sur- 
rounded him,  and  to  persuade  him  to  grant  at  last 
a  constitutional  government  to  his  people,  and  to  en- 
trust the  interests  of  the  country  to  a  Cabinet  in  pos- 
session of  its  confidence.  His  representations  proved 
absolutely  useless.  The  Emperor  replied  to  him  that 
if  the  troubled  state  of  public  opinion  persisted,  he 


266  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

would  establish  a  military  dictature.  He  forgot  in 
saying  so  that  in  order  to  carry  an  attempt  of  the 
kind  it  is  indispensable  to  have  at  one's  hand  a  man 
strong  enough  to  accept  the  responsibility  of  such  a 
post,  and  an  army  faithful  and  loyal  enough  to  back 
him  up.  Protopopoff ,  whom  the  Empress  consulted 
as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  decision  which  Lord  Milner 
had  implored  the  Czar  to  take,  declared  that  he 
thought  it  would  be  an  extremely  dangerous  one  to 
adopt,  and  that  the  only  thing  which  could  and  ought 
to  be  done,  in  the  present  circumstances,  was  to  re- 
sort to  rigorous  measures ;  to  prorogue  the  Duma  and 
the  Council  of  State ;  and  to  repress  without  the  least 
mercy  every  demonstration  against  the  government. 
He  added  that  he  was  quite  ready  to  assume  the  re- 
sponsibility of  the  repression  which  he  advised,  and  if 
the  necessity  for  doing  so  presented  itself,  to  give 
orders  to  the  police  to  fire  on  the  crowds.  At  the 
same  time  he  inundated  the  capital,  and  even  the  prov- 
inces, with  a  whole  army  of  spies,  whose  only  occupa- 
tion consisted  in  denouncing  to  him  all  the  people  who 
did  not  pay  them  sufficiently  well  to  leave  them  alone. 
A  kind  of  committee  of  public  safety,  such  as  had 
existed  in  France  at  the  time  of  the  Terror,  became, 
thanks  to  Mr.  Protopopoff,  the  sole  master  of  the 
Russian  Empire,  and  it  disposed,  according  to  its 
fancy,  of  the  existence  as  well  as  of  the  property  and 
liberty  of  the  most  peaceful  citizens.  During  one 
night,  fifty  worlonen  belonging  to  the  group  that  was 
sitting  in  the  industrial  war  committee,  entrusted  with 
the  fabrication  of  ammunitions,  as  representatives  of 
the  labour  party,  were  arrested,  without  any  other  ap- 


The  Great  Revolution  267 

parent  reason  than  the  fact  that  they  had  allowed 
themselves  to  discuss  in  piihlic  the  debates  which  had 
taken  place  in  the  Duma,  and  had  been  overheard  by 
some  spy  or  other. 

This  Assembly  had  met  on  the  27th  of  February, 
1917,  as  had  already  been  settled  before  the  resigna- 
tion of  Mr.  Sturmer,  and  the  appointment  of  Prince 
Galitzyne  as  Prime  Minister  in  his  place.  It  became 
evident  from  the  very  first  day  the  Session  was  opened 
that  most  violent  discussions  were  about  to  take  place, 
and  that  the  government  would  never  be  able  to  com- 
mand a  majority,  because  even  the  ultra  Conserva- 
tives who  had  backed  it  up  before  had  forsaken  it. 
One  more  reason  for  discontent  with  it  had  arisen :  the 
almost  total  lack  of  food  in  Petrogi-ad,  where,  thanks 
to  the  mismanagement  of  the  railways  and  the  lack 
of  tracks,  no  provisions  of  any  kind  could  arrive. 
Riots  of  a  more  or  less  serious  character  took  place  in 
different  quarters  of  the  town;  the  population  clam- 
oured for  bread,  and  broke  the  windows  in  the  bakers' 
and  butchers'  shops,  wherever  it  could  do  so.  This 
was  one  more  complication  added  to  all  those  al- 
ready existing.  The  Duma  thought  it  indis- 
pensable to  make  an  energetic  manifestation  of  its 
want  of  confidence  in  the  government's  power  to 
grapple  with  the  difficulties  of  the  situation.  The  par- 
ties composing  the  moderate  left,  together  with  the 
Cadets  that  had  recently  united  themselves  into  one 
group  denominated  the  "Bloc,"  declared  by  the  mouth 
of  their  leader,  Mr.  Chidlovsky,  that  it  was  indis- 
pensable to  call  together  a  Cabinet  comprising  really 
national  elements,  in  possession  of  the  confidence  of 


268  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  country  as  well  as  that  of  the  Sovereign,  because 
the  one  in  existence  was  entirely  discredited,  even 
among  its  former  supporters.  During  the  debates 
which  followed  upon  this  motion,  the  socialist  depu- 
ties, among  others  Mr.  Tcheidze,  expressed  themselves 
in  most  violent  terms,  and  said,  among  other  things, 
that  the  government  then  in  power  would  never  un- 
derstand the  wishes  or  the  needs  of  the  nation,  or 
become  reconciled  with  it,  and  that  between  it  and 
the  country  there  existed  an  abyss  which  nothing  in 
the  world  could  ever  fill.  It  had  against  it  the 
whole  of  Russia,  and  it  had  done  nothing  and  was 
doing  nothing  to  smooth  over  the  difficulties  which 
it  had  itself  created,  and  for  which  it  was  alone  re- 
sponsible. And  ^Ir.  Tcheidze  concluded  his  speech 
by  expressing  his  conviction  that  a  compromise  was 
no  longer  possible,  and  that  only  a  great  national 
movement  of  revolt  could  overturn  the  Cabinet  and 
replace  it  by  another  one  better  able  to  understand 
the  needs  of  the  country  and  of  the  army. 

One  of  the  leaders  of  the  extreme  right  who,  up  to 
that  time,  had  been  famous  for  his  reactionary  opin- 
ions and  sympathies,  Mr.  Pourichkievitsch,  went  even 
further  than  his  socialist  colleague,  and  proceeded  to 
sketch  the  character  of  Mr.  Protopopoff,  accusing 
him  of  spending  his  time  in  suspecting  everybody  (the 
zemstvos,  the  aristocracy,  the  Duma,  and  even  the 
Council  of  State)  of  conspiracies  against  his  person, 
and  of  meditating  the  suppression  of  these  two  insti- 
tutions within  a  short  time,  Mr.  Pourichkievitsch 
added  that  in  what  concerned  the  Duma  he  was  per- 
sonally convinced  that  it  would  prefer  a  dissolution  to 


The  Great  Revolution  269 

the  alternative  of  a  blind  submission  to  a  tyrant  like 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  and  of  keeping  silent 
when  it  knew  that  the  Fatherland  was  in  danger. 

Another  speaker  of  great  talent,  Mr  Efremoff, 
said  that  he  had  come  with  great  regret  to  the  con- 
clusion that  all  means  at  the  disposal  of  a  parliamen- 
tary assembly  to  fight  the  government  had  been  ex- 
hausted, and  that  the  whole  country  was  a  prey  to 
deep  dissatisfaction  with  the  existing  order  of  things. 
It  was  high  time,  he  added,  that  the  system  which  had 
ruled  Russia  for  such  a  long  time  should  give  way 
before  a  responsible  cabinet,  the  constitution  of  which 
was  claimed  imperatively  by  public  opinion.  It  was 
only  such  a  cabinet  that  would  be  able  to  encourage 
the  country  to  go  on  with  the  struggle  in  which  it 
found  itself  engaged,  against  a  foe  who  had  obtained 
so  many  advantages  over  it,  thanks  to  the  mistakes 
and  to  the  crimes  of  the  administration  represented 
by  Mr.  Protopopoff,  and  by  his  friends. 

But  it  was  the  leader  of  the  Cadets,  Mr.  Miliukoff , 
the  greatest  statesman  that  Russia  possesses  at  the 
present  moment,  who  dealt  the  last  blow  to  the  Min- 
istry, thanks  to  the  acerb  criticisms  which  he  ad- 
dressed to  the  Sovereign  and  to  the  latter's  advisers, 
and  to  his  indignant  protest  against  the  arbitrary 
imprisonment  of  the  delegates  of  the  workmen  of 
Petrograd,  who  had  been  chosen  by  them  to  repre- 
sent their  interests  in  the  industrial  war  commission. 
The  vice  president  of  this  commission,  Mr.  Konov- 
aloif,  joined  him  in  this  protest,  whilst  another  dep- 
uty belonging  to  the  extreme  left,  whose  name  was  to 
become  famous  very  soon,  Mr.   Kerensky,  in  Ian- 


270  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

guage  of  a  violence  such  as  had  never  been  heard  be- 
fore in  the  Duma,  prophesied  that  the  time  would 
soon  come  when  this  Duma  would  find  itself  compelled 
to  fight  for  its  rights  and  for  the  liberty  of  the  nation, 
and  would  adopt  decisive  measures  to  put  an  end  to 
the  danger  which  was  threatening  the  great  work  of 
the  national  defence,  if  it  was  allowed  to  remain  in 
the  hands  and  under  the  control  of  people  who  had  so 
badly  understood  its  claims  and  its  necessities. 

After  these  debates,  during  which  had  been  voted 
by  an  immense  majority  the  immediate  release  of  the 
arrested  workmen,  Mr.  ProtopopofF  rushed  to  Tsar- 
skoie  Selo,  the  metropolitan  Pitirim,  and  Mr. 
Sturmer  (who  had  remained  a  persona  grata  at  Court, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  had  been  compelled 
to  resign  his  former  functions  of  Prime  Minister)  ac- 
companied him.  A  conference  took  place  between 
them  and  the  Empress,  towards  the  close  of  which 
Nicholas  II.  was  asked  to  come  in  and  to  listen  to  the 
decisions  that  had  been  arrived  at,  which  he  was  re- 
quested to  sanction.  This  conference  decided  that  the 
negotiations  already  engaged  with  Germany  in  view 
of  the  conclusion  of  a  separate  peace  should  be 
hastened;  that  the  Duma  should  be  prorogued  for  an 
indefinite  period  of  time,  and  the  police  armed  with 
machine  guns,  in  order  to  be  able  to  crush  at  once,  by 
a  display  of  its  forces,  every  popular  manifestation 
that  might  be  attempted  in  favour  of  a  change  of  gov- 
ernment, should  such  manifestation  take  place  in  the 
capital. 

Here  I  am  touching  in  this  short  sketch  of  the  Rus- 
sian Revolution  upon  a  point  which  is  still  dark,  the 


The  Great  Revolution  271 

point  concerning  this  separate  peace  with  Germany, 
about  which  there  arose  at  that  time  so  much  talk  in 
Petrograd.  The  idea  of  a  step  of  that  kind,  which 
would  have  constituted  an  arrant  treason  in  regard  to 
the  Allies  of  Russia,  had  been  conceived  first  in  the 
brain  of  Mr.  Sturmer,  to  whom  most  probably  it  had 
been  suggested  by  his  confidential  friend  and  secre- 
tary, Mr.  Manassevitsch-Maniuloff,  about  whom  I 
have  already  spoken  in  the  first  part  of  this  book,  and 
who,  after  the  murder  of  Rasputin,  had  been  finally 
brought  to  trial  and  sentenced  to  eighteen  months 
hard  labour  for  blackmail.  He  had  always  been  in  the 
employ  of  Germany,  and  he  had  spoken  to  his  patron 
of  the  necessity  for  putting  an  end  to  a  war  which,  if  it 
went  on  much  longer,  might  endanger  the  very  ex- 
istence of  the  dynasty.  Mr.  Sturmer  had  also 
sympathies  for  the  "Vaterland,"  and  he  was  but  too 
glad  to  act  according  to  the  hints  which  were  given 
to  him  by  a  man  in  whom  he  had  every  confidence. 
He  found  an  unexpected  ally  in  Rasputin,  who  in  his 
turn  induced  the  Empress  through  Madame  Vyrou- 
bieva  to  rally  herself  to  his  opinion,  which  was  a  rela- 
tively easy  thing  to  do,  considering  the  fact  that  she 
had  been  already,  of  her  own  accord,  working  towards 
a  reconciliation  between  the  Romanoffs  and  the 
Hohenzollerns,  the  only  people  whom  she  thought  of 
any  consequence  in  the  whole  affair.  The  difficulty 
consisted,  however,  in  finding  a  person  willing  and 
disposed  to  act  as  intermediary  in  so  grave  a  mat- 
ter. Rasputin  knew  Protopopoff ,  discussed  the  sub- 
ject with  him,  and  found  him  quite  ready  to  enter  into 
the  views  which  he  expounded  to  him. 


272  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

At  that  time  Mr.  Protopopoff  was  vice  president  of 
the  Duma.  No  one  knew  exactly  how  he  had  con- 
trived to  secure  his  election  as  such,  considering  his 
reputation  of  reactionary  and  especially  of  oppor- 
tunist. He  had,  however,  succeeded  in  getting  him- 
self appointed,  and  the  fact  that  he  held  this  position 
gave  him  a  certain  weight  and  prestige  abroad.  He 
was  given  very  precise  instructions  as  to  what  he  was 
to  do,  and  started  with  several  of  his  colleagues 
of  the  Duma  for  England,  under  the  pretext  of 
returning  the  visit  which  some  members  of  the  Eng- 
lish House  of  Commons  had  paid  to  Petrograd  a  few 
months  earlier.  On  his  way  back,  he  stopped  at  Stock- 
holm as  I  have  already  related,  conferred  there  with 
an  agent  of  the  German  Foreign  Office  called  Mr. 
Warburg,  and  settled  with  him  the  conditions  un- 
der which  an  eventual  peace  could  be  concluded. 
After  this  Protopopoff  returned  to  Russia,  where, 
however,  the  story  of  his  Swedish  intrigues  had 
already  become  known  so  that  he  was  awarded  a  very 
poor  welcome  by  his  friends.  People  believed  then 
that  his  political  career  had  come  to  an  end,  when, 
just  at  this  juncture,  the  most  important  post  in  the 
Russian  Empire,  that  of  Minister  of  the  Interior,  be- 
came vacant,  thanks  to  the  dismissal  of  Mr.  Chvostoff 
who  had  tried  to  get  rid  of  Rasputin  with  the  help  of 
the  monk  Illiodore,  and,  to  the  general  stupefaction 
of  the  world,  the  place  was  offered  to  Mr.  Protopopoff 
by  the  Empress  herself. 

By  that  time  one  had  become  used  in  Russia  to 
every  possible  surprise  in  regard  to  the  appointment 
of  Ministers,  and  nothing  that  could  happen  in  that 


The  Great  Revolution  273 

line  astonished  those  (and  they  were  legion)  who 
knew  that  it  was  a  gang  of  adventurers  that  was  rul- 
ing the  country.  The  rise  of  ^Ir.  Protopopoff  was  not 
therefore  considered  by  them  as  something  out  of  the 
way,  but  in  parliamentary  circles  it  gave  rise  to  deep 
indignation;  an  indignation  which  eventually  found 
its  way  into  the  press,  where,  however,  it  was  very 
quickly  suppressed  by  the  censor,  and  also  in  the  vari- 
ous speeches  uttered  in  the  Duma,  during  which  al- 
lusions were  made  for  the  first  time  to  the  unhealthy 
influence  exercised  by  the  Empress  over  her  husband. 
The  former  was  triumphant.  As  soon  as  she  be- 
came aware  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  Ger- 
man government  would  consent  to  conclude  peace 
with  Russia,  she  set  herself,  in  conjunction  with  her 
friends,  to  try  to  persuade  Nicholas  II.  that  his 
duty  in  regard  to  his  people  required  him  to  put  an 
end  to  a  hopeless  conflict  during  which  the  best  blood 
in  Russia  was  being  spilt  for  a  cause  doomed  before- 
hand. She  made  him  observe  that  if  the  war  went 
on  much  longer,  the  revolutionary  elements  in  the 
country  would  wax  stronger,  in  proportion  to  the  sac- 
rifices entailed  upon  the  nation,  and  that  it  was  quite 
possible,  the  latter,  exasperated  by  their  magnitude, 
would  attempt  to  get  rid  of  a  government  that  had 
not  succeeded  in  restoring  to  it  the  tranquillit}^  which 
it  so  sorely  needed.  It  did  not  take  her  a  long  time 
to  convert  the  Czar  to  her  point  of  view,  and  the  nego- 
tiations officiously  inaugurated  by  Mr.  Protopopoff 
were  officially  continued  by  him  together  with  Mr. 
Sturmer,  whom  Alexandra  Feodorovna  personally 


274  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

entreated  to  assume  their  direction  in  conjunction 
with  her  own  self. 

In  spite  of  the  extreme  secrecy  which  had  presided 
at  these  different  conferences  between  the  Empress 
and  her  favourites,  something  of  their  purport  had 
transpired  among  the  general  public,  and  threats  had 
been  preferred  against  those  who  had  accepted  to 
play  the  sad  part  of  Judas  in  regard  to  their  country. 
These  threats  had  been  whispered  in  the  corridors  of 
the  Duma,  and  Mr.  Protopopoff  had  been  informed 
of  their  purport  by  his  spies.  It  became  therefore 
one  of  his  principal  aims  to  get  rid  of  an  opposition 
which,  he  knew  but  too  well,  would  only  increase  in 
violence  as  well  as  in  importance  as  the  sorry  work  he 
was  bent  upon  performing  would  come  out  in  the 
light  of  day  and  become  known  to  his  numerous 
adversaries.  Apart  from  this,  he  thought  it  would  be 
better  to  present  himself  later  on  before  the  Duma 
with  an  accomplished  fact  behind  him.  He  therefore 
persuaded  the  Empress  that  whilst  he  would  be 
pressing  with  the  utmost  speed  the  negotiations  with 
the  Kaiser,  begun  already,  it  would  be  advisable  to 
bring  from  the  front  a  considerable  number  of  troops 
to  Petrograd,  so  as  to  be  able  with  their  help  to  crush 
any  effort  at  resistance  attempted  either  by  the  popu- 
lation of  the  capital  or  by  its  garrison,  about  whose 
state  of  mind  the  minister  did  not  feel  quite  sure. 
The  Cabinet  was  so  badly  informed,  in  spite  of  its 
numerous  spies,  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  army 
that  it  imagined  the  latter  would  only  feel  grateful 
and  happy  to  see  the  campaign  come  to  an  end  and 
be  able  to  go  back  to  its  homes,  and  that  in  conse- 


The  Great  Revolution  275 

quence  it  would  lend  itself  with  the  greatest  pleasure 
to  any  attempt  made  by  the  Monarch  and  the  govern- 
ment to  put  an  end  to  a  struggle  for  which  it  did  not 
feel  any  longer  any  enthusiasm  at  heart. 

The  men  who  reasoned  thus  were  absolutely  mis- 
taken. The  army  had  made  up  its  mind  to  win  the 
war;  the  workmen  whose  importance  was  increasing 
with  every  day  that  went  by,  also  wished  it,  because 
they  hoped  that  out  of  this  victory  they  were  longing 
for  might  result  a  radical  change  in  the  form  of  the 
administration  they  had  begun  to  despise  more  and 
more  as  its  incapacity  became  more  and  more  ap- 
parent. The  person  of  the  Czar  did  not  inspire  re- 
spect or  enthusiasm  any  longer,  but  on  the  other  hand 
love  for  the  Fatherland  had  made  considerable  prog- 
ress since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  the  national 
sentiment  which,  up  to  that  time,  had  only  existed  in 
the  state  of  an  Utopia  had  become  a  reality,  espe- 
cially since  one  had  perceived  the  great  strength  which 
it  had  communicated  to  Russia's  allies,  to  France 
among  others,  where  the  Republic,  which  many  peo- 
ple were  already  seeing  loom  in  the  distance  as  a  pos- 
sibility in  the  land  of  the  Czars,  had  inspired  so  much 
patriotism  to  its  citizens. 

ISTeither  Mr.  Sturmer,  nor  Mr.  Protopopoff,  nor 
those  who  shared  their  opinions  and  their  views,  were 
able  to  understand  what  was  going  on  in  the  heart 
and  in  the  soul  of  the  Russian  nation.  They  were  far 
too  much  absorbed  in  their  own  petty,  personal  inter- 
ests, to  be  able  to  give  a  thought  to  such  a  subject. 
For  them  the  conclusion  of  a  peace  with  Germany 
meant  the  strengthening  of  their  influence  and  of  their 


276  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

power,  together  with  honours,  dignities,  and  the 
possibility  to  em'ich  themselves,  and  to  have  a  few 
more  stars  attached  to  the  golden  embroideries  of 
their  uniforms.  It  meant  also  the  possibility  of  get- 
ting rid  once  for  all  of  this  spectre  of  a  responsible 
ministry,  of  which  they  stood  in  such  dread.  They 
therefore  threw  themselves  in  the  struggle  against  the 
Duma  with  an  ardour  that  grew  as  they  saw  the  in- 
creasing difficulties  with  which  the  accomplishment 
of  their  designs  was  going  to  encounter  in  that  As- 
sembly, and,  as  a  first  step  in  the  course  of  action  they 
had  determined  to  follow,  they  submitted  to  the  sig- 
nature of  Nicholas  II.  the  fatal  decree  which  pro- 
rogued the  Duma  together  with  the  Council  of  State, 
and  which  was  to  give  the  signal  for  the  conflagration 
of  which  they  were  to  become  themselves  the  first 
victims. 

Traitors  are  always  to  be  found  in  hours  of  great 
national  peril.  Among  the  people  who  resided  in 
the  palace  of  Tsarskoie  Selo,  there  was  a  person  who, 
becoming  acquainted  by  chance  of  what  was  going  on 
there,  rushed  to  communicate  the  news  which  he  had 
heard  to  Mr.  Kerensky,  the  leader  of  the  extreme  left 
party  in  the  Duma.  The  latter  did  not  lose  one  mo- 
ment in  communicating  to  his  colleague  the  news 
which  had  come  to  his  knowledge,  and  also  to  the 
president  of  the  Assembly,  JVIr.  Rodzianko. 

Mr.  Rodzianko  was  about  the  last  man  whom  one 
would  have  suspected  of  being  possessed  of  the  neces- 
sary determination  to  resort  to  a  "Coup  d'Etat."  He 
was  a  Chamberlain  of  the  Czar;  he  had  been  brought 
up  in  monarchical  traditions,  and  during  his  whole 


Photograph,  International  Film  Service,  Inc. 

Alexander  Kerexskt 


The  Great  Revolution  277 

life  he  had  submitted  to  the  one  which,  in  Russia, 
placed  the  Sovereign  in  the  light  of  something  holy 
and  sacred  before  his  subjects.  He  was  respected 
but  did  not  enjoy  an  immense  authority  in  the  Cham- 
ber that  had  never  taken  quite  kindly  to  him,  not 
thinking  him  possessed  of  sufficient  courage  to  fight 
its  battles  with  efficiency.  It  is  probable  that  he  felt 
terrified  rather  than  anything  else,  at  the  prospect 
which  the  communication  of  JNIr.  Kerensky  opened  be- 
fore him,  but  things  had  advanced  too  far  for  him  to 
be  able  to  withdraw.  There  was  no  alternative  left 
but  to  perish  oneself,  or  to  destroj'^  others.  Mr.  Rod- 
zianko  called  together  a  meeting  of  several  deputies 
belonging  to  the  moderate  parties,  with  whom  he  dis- 
cussed the  situation.  They  very  quickly  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  if  one  entered  into  a  struggle  with  the 
government  in  this  all  important  question  of  war  and 
peace,  one  would  be  backed  up  by  the  whole  country, 
which  did  not  wish  to  see  the  war  come  to  an  end  until 
the  enemy  had  been  driven  out  of  Russian  territory. 
There  was  also  another  thing  which  added  itself  to  all 
the  different  questions  roused  by  the  discovery  of  the 
intentions  of  the  Court.  It  was  the  determination 
of  the  radical  groups  of  the  Duma  to  proceed  to  the 
"Coup  d'Etat"  on  their  own  accord,  and  no  matter 
under  what  conditions,  with  or  without  the  help  of 
the  moderate  elements  in  the  Assembly.  This  might 
have  become  extremely  dangerous,  as  they  had  be- 
hind them  the  whole  mass  of  the  working  population 
of  the  capital.  The  question  had  therefore  to  be  con- 
sidered as  to  whether  the  Revolution  was  to  be  made 
with  the  concurrence  of  all  the  parties  represented  in 


278  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

the  Duma,  or  by  the  radical  socialists  alone,  who,  in 
the  latter  case,  would  have  become  the  absolute  mas- 
ters of  the  situation,  and  might  have  pressed  for  the 
immediate  proclamation  of  a  Republic  which  could 
easily  have  degenerated  into  an  anarchy,  and  which  in 
the  best  of  cases  would  have  lacked  the  necessary  dig- 
nity, capable  of  giving  it  prestige  and  authority  at 
home  and  abroad.  Mr.  Rodzianko  found  himself 
placed  in  the  presence  of  a  dilemma  of  a  most  difficult 
kind  and  nature.  He  took  the  only  decision  possible 
under  the  circumstances,  he  boldly  placed  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  movement  and  constituted  a  pro- 
visional government,  in  place  of  the  one  that  had 
foundered  under  the  weight  of  the  contempt  of  the 
whole  nation. 

The  first  thing  that  was  done  by  the  Duma  was  to 
refuse  to  disperse  and  to  resist  the  ukaze  of  the  Czar 
that  had  prorogued  its  debates  for  an  indefinite  time. 
The  socialist  deputies  went  about  trying  to  get  the 
population  of  Petrograd  to  join  in  the  vast  movement 
of  revolt  they  meant  to  bring  about.  The  latter  was 
but  too  willing  to  do  so,  and  the  want  of  provisions 
was  the  pretext  which  the  people  took  to  organise 
vast  meetings,  and  a  strike  in  all  the  factories.  Great 
masses  of  men  and  women  paraded  the  streets,  and 
were  dispersed  by  a  formidable  police  force  which 
had  been  assembled  by  Mr.  Protopopoff  and  armed 
with  machine  guns  that  were  used  against  the 
crowds,  whenever  these  did  not  obey  immediately  the 
injunctions  to  disperse  given  to  them  by  special  con- 
stables and  Cossacks  gathered  together  in  all  the  prin- 
cipal streets  and  squares  of  the  capital.    The  regular 


The  Great  Revolution  279 

troops  had  been  consigned  in  their  barracks  and  or- 
dered to  keep  themselves  ready  to  lend  a  hand  to  the 
police.  But  the  unexpected  happened.  The  sol- 
diers had  been  worked  upon  by  delegates  from  the 
workmen,  and  they  declared  that  they  would  not  obey 
orders,  should  any  be  given  to  them,  to  fire  upon  the 
populace  assembled  in  the  streets.  The  latter  seemed 
quite  sure  of  impunity,  because  nothwithstanding  the 
preparations  made  by  the  police  to  quell  the  revolu- 
tionary movement,  the  existence  of  which  was  already 
recognised  everywhere,  it  refused  to  disperse,  and  on 
the  contrary  proceeded  to  cormnit  the  only  acts  of  vio- 
lence which  were  performed  during  the  course  of  the 
mutiny.  It  threw  itself  on  the  prisons  where  political 
offenders  were  confined,  plundered  and  burned  them, 
and  liberated  their  inmates.  A  few  other  excesses 
were  performed,  upon  which  the  Duma  constituted 
itself  an  executive  committee,  which  assumed  the  task 
of  restoring  order  in  Petrograd. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  Czar  who  had  been  kept  in 
total  ignorance  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  capital, 
had  left  Tsarskoie  Selo  for  headquarters,  after  having 
signed  the  prorogation  of  the  Chambers.  In  his  ab- 
sence, it  was  the  Empress  who  was  left  sole  mistress 
of  the  situation,  and  it  is  to  her  and  to  Protopopoff 
that  were  due  all  the  attempts  at  repression  which 
happily  for  all  parties  concerned  were  not  allowed  to 
be  executed,  at  least  not  in  their  entirety. 

Mr.  Rodzianko  telegraphed  to  the  Czar.  He  in- 
formed him  that  the  position  was  getting  extremely 
serious,  that  the  population  of  Petrograd  was  abso- 
lutely without  any  food,  that  riots  were  taking  place, 


28o  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

and  that  the  troops  were  firing  at  one  another.  He 
implored  the  Sovereign  in  the  interests  of  the  dynasty 
to  send  away  ProtopopoiF  and  his  crew,  and  he  drew 
his  notice  to  the  fact  that  every  hour  was  precious,  and 
that  every  delay  might  bring  about  a  catastrophe. 
At  the  same  time  he  telegraphed  to  the  principal  com- 
manders at  the  front,  asking  them  to  uphold  his  re- 
quest for  a  responsible  government  capable  of  put- 
ting an  end  to  the  complete  anarchy  that  was  reigning 
in  the  capital,  an  anarchy  which  threatened  to  extend 
itself  all  over  the  country.  The  commanders  replied 
that  they  would  do  what  he  asked  them  to  perform. 
Nicholas  II.  alone  made  no  sign.  It  was  related  af- 
terwards that  he  had  telegraphed  to  the  Empress, 
asking  her  what  she  advised  him  to  do.  But  it  is 
more  likely  that  the  telegram  of  the  President  of  the 
Duma  was  never  handed  to  him.  Mr.  Rodzianko, 
however,  sent  another  despatch  to  headquarters  which 
contained  the  following  warning:  "The  position  is 
getting  more  and  more  alarming.  It  is  indispensable 
to  take  measures  to  put  an  end  to  it,  or  to-morrow 
it  may  be  too  late.  This  is  the  last  moment  dur- 
ing which  may  be  decided  the  fate  of  the  nation 
and  of  the  dynasty."  To  this  message  also  no  reply 
was  received.  The  Czar  seemed  unable  to  under- 
stand the  gravity  of  the  situation.  Others  did,  how- 
ever, in  his  place,  and  on  that  same  day,  the  12th  of 
March,  the  troops  composing  the  garrison  of  Petro- 
grad  went  over  to  the  cause  of  the  Revolution.  They 
marched  to  the  Duma  in  a  long  procession,  beginning 
with  the  Volynsky  regiment,  one  of  the  crack  ones  in 
the  army,  to  which  joined  themselves  almost  imme- 


Copyright,  International  Film  Service.  Iiir. 

Revolutionary  Crowd  in  Petrograd 


The  Great  Revolution  281 

diately  the  famous  Preobragensky  Guards,  and  they 
declared  themselves  ready  to  stand  by  the  side  of  the 
new  government.  The  President  of  the  Duma  re- 
ceived them,  and  declared  to  them  that  the  executive 
committee  which  had  been  constituted  was  going  to 
appoint  a  provisional  government;  of  the  Czar,  there 
was  no  longer  any  question.  It  had  become  evident 
that  his  army  would  no  longer  support  his  authority 
or  fight  for  him  and  for  his  dynasty.  Soon  the  troops 
composing  the  garrisons  of  Tsarskoie  Selo,  Peterhof, 
and  Gatschina  left  their  quarters  and  joined  the  muti- 
neers. The  Revolution  had  become  an  accomplished 
fact. 

The  new  executive  committee  displayed  consider- 
able patriotism  at  this  juncture.  It  might  have  pro- 
voked enormous  enthusiasm  in  its  favour  had  it  re- 
vealed what  it  knew  concerning  the  peace  negotia- 
tions entered  into  by  the  Empress,  but  this  might 
have  given  a  pretext  for  explosions  of  wrath  on  the 
part  of  the  mob,  which  could  easily  have  ended  in 
excesses,  compromising  the  dignity  of  the  Revolution. 
It  therefore  decided  to  keep  back  from  the  public  its 
knowledge  on  this  subject,  and  contented  itself  with 
arresting  the  ministers,  and  all  the  persons  whom  it 
suspected  of  having  lent  themselves  to  this  intrigue, 
and  it  simply  empowered  two  members  of  the  Duma, 
Mr.  Goutschkoff  and  Mr.  Schoulguine,  to  proceed 
to  Pskov,  where  it  was  known  that  the  Emperor  had 
arrived  the  day  before,  to  ask  the  latter  to  abdicate 
in  favour  of  his  son.  Nicholas  II.  in  the  meanwhile 
had  arrived  at  headquarters  which  were  then  in  Mohi- 
lev,  and  where  no  one  seemed  to  know  anything  about 


282  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

what  was  going  on  in  Petrograd.  None  of  the  people 
about  him  even  suspected  that  a  storm  was  brewing 
which  would  overturn  in  a  few  hours  a  power  which 
they  considered  far  too  formidable  for  anything  to 
be  able  to  shake.  The  only  person  who  was  kept 
informed  of  the  course  which  events  were  taking  was 
the  head  of  the  Staff,  General  Alexieieff,  who  had 
been  won  over  from  the  very  first  to  the  cause  of  the 
Revolution,  and  who,  if  one  is  to  believe  all  that 
one  hears,  played  all  the  time  a  double  game. 
It  was  he  who  received  all  the  telegrams  ad- 
dressed to  the  Emperor,  and  who  communicated 
them  to  him.  The  latter  at  last  was  shaken  out 
of  his  equanimity,  and  gave  orders  to  prepare  his 
train  to  return  to  Tsarskoie  Selo.  He  took  this  de- 
cision in  consequence  of  a  message  from  the  com- 
mander of  the  Palace,  addressed  to  General  Voyei- 
kofF  the  head  of  the  Okhrana,  where  the  latter  was 
advised  that  the  presence  of  the  Sovereign  was  neces- 
sary, because  the  troops  of  the  garrison  in  the  Impe- 
rial residence  had  mutineed,  and  the  safety  of  the 
Empress  and  of  her  children  was  endangered.  But  in 
spite  of  the  orders  given  to  press  the  departure  of  the 
Imperial  train  it  somehow  could  not  be  got  ready  as 
quickly  as  was  generally  the  case,  so  that  it  was  only 
during  the  night  from  the  12th  to  the  13th  of  March, 
that  it  started  at  last.  It  went  the  usual  route  as 
far  as  the  station  of  Lichoslav,  where  it  was  met  with 
the  news  that  a  revolutionary  government  had  been 
formed  at  Petrograd  which  had  seized  the  railway 
lines  and  appointed  a  deputy  to  take  them  in  charge. 
Another  telegram  from  the  military  station  master 


The  Great  Revolution  283 

of  the  Nicholas  station  in  Petrograd  instructed  the 
officials  at  Lichoslav  to  send  the  Imperial  train  to 
Petrogi-ad,  and  not  to  Tsarskoie  Selo.  This  was  com- 
municated to  General  Voyeikoif ,  who,  however,  gave 
directions  not  to  heed  this  warning,  but  to  proceed  to 
Tsarskoie  Selo,  as  had  been  arranged  at  first.  At 
twelve  o'clock  at  night  the  Imperial  train  reached 
Bologoie.  There  a  railway  official  informed  the  per- 
sons in"  charge  of  it  that  Tosno  and  Lioubane  were  in 
possession  of  the  troops  which  had  mutineed  against 
the  government,  and  that  it  might  be  dangerous  to 
proceed  any  further.  General  VoyeikofF  would  not 
listen  to  this  advice,  and  the  train  went  on  to  the 
station  of  Vichera,  where  it  had  perforce  to  stop.  The 
General  was  told  that  the  first  train  which  always 
preceded  the  one  in  which  the  Sovereign  was  travel- 
ling had  been  seized  by  the  insurgents,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Imperial  suite  who  were  travelling  in  it 
had  been  arrested  and  conveyed  under  escort  to  Pet- 
rograd. 

The  Czar  was  awakened.  General  VoyeikofF  in- 
formed him  that  it  was  impossible  to  proceed  to  Tsar- 
skoie Selo,  because  the  railway  line  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  revolutionaries.  It  was  then  decided  to  go  to 
Pskov,  where  commanded  General  Roussky,  on  whose 
fidelity  the  Sovereign  believed  that  he  might  rely. 

But  Roussky  had  been  won  over  to  the  cause  of  the 
Duma,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  had  been 
loaded  with  favours  by  Nicholas  II.  When  the  lat- 
ter reached  Pskov,  where  the  General  met  him  at  the 
railway  station,  the  troops  there  had  already  been 
sworn  over  by  their  commander  in  favour  of  the  Revo- 


284  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

lution,  and  were  quite  ready  to  enforce  its  decisions. 
The  Czai*  knew  nothing  about  this,  and  after  a  few 
moments'  conversation  with  Roussky,  who  acquainted 
him  superficially  with  the  spirit  reigning  in  the  army, 
he  declared  to  him  that  he  consented  to  call  together 
a  responsible  Cabinet  chosen  out  of  the  principal 
leaders  of  the  different  parties  in  the  Duma.  But  the 
General  replied  that  he  feared  this  concession  came 
too  late,  and  that  it  would  no  longer  satisfy  the  coun- 
try or  the  army. 

On  the  15th  of  March,  Roussky  succeeded  in  talk- 
ing over  the  telephone  with  Rodzianko,  whom  he  in- 
formed of  the  details  of  his  conversation  with  Nicholas 
II.  The  president  of  the  Duma  then  told  him  that 
the  former  must  decide  to  abdicate  in  favour  of 
his  son.  They  spoke  for  more  than  two  hours,  and 
before  then*  talk  had  come  to  an  end,  Roussky  had 
promised  to  do  all  that  lay  within  his  power,  even  to 
resort  to  violence  if  need  be,  to  further  the  views 
of  the  new  government  that  had  taken  up  the  su- 
preme authority  in  Russia.  He  went  then  to  make  his 
report  to  the  Emperor,  after  which  the  latter  signified 
his  intention  to  resign  his  throne  to  his  little  boy.  The 
telegram  announcing  this  resolution,  however,  was  not 
sent  to  Petrograd,  because  in  the  meanwhile  there 
had  reached  Pskov  the  news  that  the  two  delegates 
sent  by  the  Executive  Committee,  Mr.  GoutschkofF, 
and  Mr.  Schoulguine,  had  started  on  their  way  thither, 
in  order  to  confer  personally  with  the  Czar. 

At  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  that  same  day,  the 
15th  of  March,  they  reached  Pskov.  Then-  intention 
had  been  to  confer  at  first  with  General  Roussky,  but 


The  Great  Revolution  285 

an  Imperial  aide  de  camp  met  them  on  the  platform, 
and  asked  them  to  follow  him  immediately  into  the 
presence  of  Nicholas  II.  The  latter  received  them  in 
his  railway  carriage.  With  him  were  old  Count 
Fredericks,  the  Minister  of  his  household,  and  a 
favourite  aide  de  camp.  General  Narischkine.  Noth- 
ing in  the  appearance  of  the  Emperor  could  have  led 
any  one  to  suppose  that  something  extraordinary  was 
happening  to  him.  He  was  as  impassible  as  was  his 
wont  in  all  the  important  occasions  of  his  life,  and 
he  shook  hands  with  the  delegates  as  if  nothing  what- 
ever was  the  matter,  asking  them  to  sit  down.  He  mo- 
tioned GoutschkofF  to  a  chair  beside  him,  and  Schoul- 
guine  opposite.  Fredericks  and  Narischkine  stood  at 
some  distance  from  the  group,  and  Roussky,  who 
came  in  uninvited  at  that  moment,  placed  himself 
next  to  Schoulguine. 

GoutschkofF  was  the  first  one  to  speak.  He  was  ex- 
tremely agitated  and  could  only  control  his  feelings 
with  difficulty,  keeping  his  eyes  riveted  on  the  table 
and  not  daring  to  lift  them  up  to  the  face  of  the  Sov- 
ereign whose  crown  he  had  come  to  demand.  But  his 
speech  was  perfectly  correct,  and  contained  nothing 
that  could  have  been  interpreted  in  an  offensive  way. 
He  exposed  the  whole  situation,  such  as  it  was,  and 
concluded  by  saying  that  the  only  possible  manner  to 
come  out  of  it  would  be  the  abdication  of  the  Czar 
in  favour  of  his  son  under  the  regency  of  the  former's 
brother,  the  Grand  Duke  Michael  Alexandrovitsch. 

At  this  juncture  Roussky  could  not  restrain  his 
impatience,  and,  bending  down  towards  Schoulguine, 
murmured  in  his  ear:    "This  is  already  quite  settled." 


286  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

When  Goutschkoff  had  finished  his  speech,  Nich- 
olas II.  replied  in  a  perfectly  quiet  and  composed 
tone  of  voice: 

"I  thought  the  matter  over  yesterday,  and  to- 
day, and  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  abdicate.  Un- 
til three  o'clock  I  was  ready  to  do  so  in  favour  of  my 
son,  but  then  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  could 
not  part  from  him." 

He  stopped  for  a  few  moments,  then  went  on : 

"I  hope  that  you  will  understand  this,"  and  after 
another  pause  he  continued: 

"On  that  account,  I  have  decided  to  abdicate  in 
favour  of  my  brother." 

The  delegates  looked  at  each  other,  and  Schoul- 
guine  remarked  that  they  were  not  prepared  for  this 
complication,  and  that  he  begged  permission  to  con- 
sult with  his  colleague.  But  after  a  short  conversa- 
tion they  gave  up  the  point,  as  Goutschkoff  remarked 
that  he  did  not  think  they  had  the  right  to  mix  them- 
selves up  in  a  matter  where  paternal  feelings  and 
affection  came  into  question,  and  that  besides  a  re- 
gency had  also  much  to  say  against  it,  and  was  likely 
to  lead  to  complications.  The  Emperor  seemed  sat- 
isfied that  the  delegates  had  conceded  the  point, 
and  then  he  asked  them  whether  they  could  under- 
take to  guarantee  that  his  abdication  would  pacify 
the  country  and  not  lead  to  any  disturbances.  They 
declared  that  they  could  do  so.  Upon  this  he  got 
up  and  passed  into  another  compartment  of  his  rail- 
way carriage.  In  about  half  an  hour  he  returned, 
holding  in  his  hand  a  folded  paper,  which  he  handed 
over  to  Goutschkoff,  saying  as  he  did  so:    "Here  is 


The  Great  Revolution  287 

my  abdication,  will  you  read  it?"  After  which  he 
shook  hands  with  the  delegates  and  retired  as  if  noth- 
ing unusual  had  happened,  perhaps  not  realising  that 
with  one  stroke  of  his  pen  he  had  changed  not  only 
his  own  life,  but  the  course  of  Russian  history,  and, 
in  a  certain  sense,  destroyed  the  work  of  his  glorious 
ancestor,  Peter  the  Great. 

It  is  difficult  here  not  to  make  some  remark  on  the 
part  played  by  General  Roussky  in  this  tragedy  which 
without  his  interference  would  probably  have  taken  a 
different  course.  It  is  impossible  not  to  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  unfortunate  Czar  whom  he  induced 
to  abdicate,  might  have  found  better  and  more  faith- 
ful servants  than  the  people  who  forsook  him  in  the 
hour  of  his  peril.  Very  probably  Roussky  believed 
that  he  was  acting  in  the  interests  of  his  country,  which 
in  a  sense  he  was  also  doing,  because  something 
had  to  be  attempted  in  order  to  stop  the  nefari- 
ous work  of  Alexandra  Feodorovna,  and  it  is  certain 
that  her  husband  would  never  willingly  have  con- 
sented to  be  parted  from  her.  Killing  a  woman  would 
have  been  disgracing  oneself,  together  with  the  Revo- 
lution which  had  been  accomplished  under  such  ex- 
ceptional circumstances ;  but  still  one  would  have  pre- 
ferred that  the  man  who  was  instrumental  in  the  de- 
struction of  the  Romanoff  dynasty  should  not  have 
been  one  who  wore  on  his  epaulettes  the  initials  of  the 
Sovereign  he  was  helping  to  dethrone.  One  would 
have  liked  him  to  feel  some  pity  for  the  master  whose 
hand  he  had  kissed  a  few  days  before  he  presented  to 
him  the  pen  with  which  he  ordered  him  to  sign  his 
own  degradation.    In  spite  of  the  impassibility  pre- 


288  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

served  by  Nicholas  II.  during  the  last  hours  of  his 
reign,  it  is  likely  that  the  tragedy  which  took  place 
at  Pskov  must  have  been  one  of  the  most  poignant 
that  has  ever  assailed  a  Sovereign,  who,  after  having 
reigned  for  twenty-two  years,  found  himself,  in  the 
course  of  a  few  hours,  reduced  to  utter  powerless- 
ness  and  compelled  to  give  up  of  his  own  accord 
the  crown  which  his  father  had  bequeathed  to 
him,  and  which  he  had  hoped  to  leave  in  his  turn  to 
the  son,  whom  fate  and  perhaps  a  mistaken  feeling  of 
affection  had  made  him  despoil.  He  was  not  a  bad 
man  after  all,  although  he  had  done  many  a  bad  ac- 
tion; he  was  a  tender  father,  and  the  thought  of  his 
child  must  have  added  to  the  moral  agony  of  his  soul. 
By  what  means  he  was  induced  to  put  his  name  at  the 
bottom  of  the  document  which  snatched  away  from 
him  the  sceptre  which  he  had  dropped  on  his  corona- 
tion day  in  Moscow,  remains  still  a  mystery.  .Whether 
violence  was  used,  or  whether  he  was  persuaded  by 
the  eloquence  of  Roussky  alone  to  give  up  the  inheri- 
tance of  his  race,  is  a  thing  which  the  future  alone  will 
reveal  to  us.  It  is  probable  that  he  found  himself  com- 
pelled to  come  to  his  decision  in  some  way  or  other, 
and  perhaps  the  threat  to  reveal  the  treason  against 
his  allies  in  which  he  had  participated,  and  which  had 
been  the  work  of  the  Empress,  was  the  most  powerful 
argument  which  was  used  to  oblige  him  to  sign  his 
abdication.  It  was  after  all  better  to  fall  as  a  weak 
man  than  to  be  covered  with  shame  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world.  He  was  perhaps  told  to  choose  between 
degradation  and  dishonour,  and  he  cannot  be  blamed 
if  he  refused  to  resign  himself  to  the  latter. 


CHAPTER  V 

The  abdication  of  Nicholas  II.  was  but  one  of  the 
acts  of  a  drama  the  end  of  which  is  awaited  with  anxi- 
ety not  only  in  Russia,  but  in  the  whole  of  the  world. 
Like  everything  else  that  he  had  ever  done,  it  was  not 
performed  in  time,  and  it  was  badly  executed.  His 
own  selfishness,  together  with  that  of  his  wife,  had 
brought  about  catastrophes  which  it  would  have  been 
relatively  easy  to  avoid,  by  displaying  a  small  amount 
of  political  tact,  good  sense,  and  knowledge  of  the  real 
requirements  of  the  Russian  people.  If  the  Czar  had 
only  been  able  to  render  to  himself  an  account  of  all 
that  was  going  on  around  him,  he  would  in  the  inter- 
est of  his  dynasty  have  given  up  his  son  to  the  care 
of  the  nation,  and  allowed  him  to  take  his  place  under 
the  regency  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael.  This  would 
have  left  Russia  with  a  Czar,  and  not  allowed  the  peo- 
ple to  see  that  they  could  very  well  exist  without  one, 
which,  as  events  have  proved,  has  not  been  a  particu- 
larly lucky  experience  for  them.  This  would  also  have 
ensured  to  Nicholas  II.  his  own  liberty,  because  it  is 
not  likely  that  the  Grand  Duke  Michael  would  have 
had  his  brother  and  sister-in-law  imprisoned.  But 
neither  the  dispossessed  Monarch  nor  Alexandra  Feo- 
dorovna  were  characters  able  to  rise  to  any  heights  of 
unselfishness.  She  had  not  the  faintest  knowledge  of 
the  duties  imposed  upon  her  by  her  position  as  Em- 

289 


290  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

press  of  Russia,  and  when  she  was  placed  between  the 
alternative  of  seeing  her  husband  dethroned,  or  being 
compelled  to  give  up  his  crown  to  their  child,  she 
suggested  a  third  one ;  that  of  substituting  for  the  lat- 
ter his  uncle,  because  she  thought  it  would  be  easier 
for  her  later  on  to  overturn  him  than  an  Emperor 
who  owned  her  for  a  mother;  and  that  she  already 
contemplated  the  eventuality  of  a  protest  on  the  part 
of  Nicholas  II.  against  the  abdication  to  which  he  had 
been  compelled  is  a  fact  that  can  hardly  be  denied. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Grand  Duke  Michael  could 
not  have  refused  to  act  as  Regent  for  his  nephew, 
though  it  was,  in  a  certain  sense,  natural  for  him  to 
show  some  hesitation  in  accepting  over  the  head  of  his 
brother,  and  of  his  brother's  son,  the  crown  of  their 
common  ancestors.  Personally  the  young  Grand  Duke 
did  not  care  for  power  or  for  honours,  and  the  fact 
that  he  was  married  to  a  lady  not  belonging  to  any 
royal  house  made  it  easier  for  him  to  resign  himself  to 
go  on  for  the  rest  of  his  existence  living  as  a  very  rich 
private  gentleman,  which  he  had  done  for  a  number 
of  years.  Pressure  was  also  brought  to  bear  upon  him, 
in  the  sense  that  he  was  told  by  persons  interested  in 
his  not  accepting  the  throne  that  if  the  Constitutive 
Assembly  which  it  was  proposed  to  call  together, 
would  elect  him  as  Emperor,  it  would  put  him  later 
on  in  an  easier  position  in  regard  to  his  nephew,  the 
little  Grand  Duke  Alexis,  and  perhaps  even  allow 
him  to  secure  the  possession  of  his  empire  to  his  own 
children  after  him.  All  these  considerations  put  to- 
gether decided  him  not  to  avail  himself  of  the  imme- 
diate opportunity  which  lay  before  him,  of  becoming 


S3 

0 
ffl 

« 

O 


The  Great  Revolution  291 

the  Czar  of  All  the  Russias,  and  his  proclamation  on 
the  subject  may  have  been  a  wise  one  from  a  personal 
point  of  view ;  it  was,  however,  disastrous  as  regarded 
the  future  fate  of  the  dynasty,  and  it  is  doubtful  now 
whether  it  will  ever  be  possible  for  a  Romanoff  to 
reign  again  in  Russia. 

The  men  who  had  made  the  Revolution  were  but 
too  well  aware  of  this  fact,  and  they  proceeded,  im- 
mediately after  this  act  of  Renunciation,  to  organise 
the  government  of  the  country  on  the  new  lines  which 
they  hoped  and  wished  to  follow  in  the  future.  Their 
lead  was  followed  by  the  nation  with  an  enthusiasm 
which  was  so  intense  that  it  is  no  wonder  it  came  to 
collapse  so  soon  as  was  the  case.  Russia  seemed  to 
have  been  seized  with  a  perfect  frenzy;  she  was  like 
a  man  who  after  having  been  unjustly  imprisoned 
for  years  does  not  know  what  to  make  of  his  newly 
acquired  freedom.  People  were  literally  mad  with 
joy,  and  inclined  to  find  that  everything  their  new 
government  wished  to  do  was  right.  Hardly  a  voice 
of  discontent  arose  during  these  first  weeks  that  fol- 
lowed upon  the  abdication  of  Nicholas  II.,  and  this 
absolution,  which  was  granted  beforehand  to  the  Min- 
istry that  had  taken  into  its  hands  the  direction  of  the 
affairs  of  the  country,  allowed  the  men  at  the  head 
of  it  to  decide  the  fate  of  the  Sovereign  whom  they 
had  helped  to  overthrow,  in  a  manner  perhaps  differ- 
ent from  what  would  have  been  done  under  other  cir- 
cumstances. 

The  Czar,  after  having  parted  from  Mr.  Goutsch- 
koff  and  Mr.  Schoulguine  at  Pskov,  and  seen  them 
leave  with  his  abdication  for  Petrograd,  proceeded 


292  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

himself  in  his  own  special  train  to  Mohilew,  where  the 
headquarters  of  the  army  were  established.  It  is  not 
easy  to  understand  the  reasons  which  induced  him  to 
do  it.  Perhaps  he  thought  he  would  be  in  greater 
safety  among  the  troops  that  had  owned  him  as  a  chief 
but  the  day  before  than  anywhere  else.  At  that  time 
he  had  not  the  slightest  inkling  of  the  treason 
of  General  Alexieieff ,  and  he  might  have  nursed  the 
vague  thought  that  the  latter  might  lend  himself  to 
another  effort  to  subdue  the  revolutionary  movement 
which  had  seized  hold  so  rapidly  of  the  whole  country. 
Others  say  that  he  wished  to  bid  good-bye  to  his  army 
before  returning  to  Tsarskoie  Selo  to  join  his  wife  and 
family.  The  real  motive  of  his  determination  has,  how- 
ever, not  been  ascertained  so  far,  though  the  rumours 
going  about  at  the  time  would  have  it  that  he  had  been 
invited  to  repair  to  headquarters  by  Alexieieff,  who 
thought  that  it  would  be  easier  for  him  to  keep  his 
former  Sovereign  a  prisoner  there  than  anywhere  else, 
until  the  moment  when  the  new  government  should 
have  decided  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  with  him.  That 
something  of  the  kind  must  have  been  in  his  mind  can 
be  deduced  from  the  fact  that  from  the  day  of  the 
return  of  Nicholas  II.  at  Mohilew  he  was  no  longer 
allowed  to  see  any  of  the  officers  of  the  Staff,  or  those 
attached  to  headquarters,  and  that  the  only  person 
who  visited  him  twice  a  day,  as  if  to  assure  himself 
that  he  was  still  there,  was  General  Alexieieff  himself, 
and  this  only  for  a  few  minutes.  It  was  also  the  gen- 
eral who  insisted  on  both  Count  Fredericks,  formerly 
Minister  of  the  Imperial  household,  and  General 
Voyeikoff ,  the  head  of  the  Oldirana,  or  personal  police 


The  Great  Revolution  293 

guard  of  the  Czar,  being  sent  away  from  IVIohilew. 
He  explained  his  request  by  saying  that  these  two 
gentlemen  were  looked  upon  with  such  inimical  feel- 
ings by  the  garrison  and  officers  stationed  at  Mohilew, 
that  he  could  not  answer  for  their  safety  were  they 
to  remain  near  the  Emperor.  In  consequence  of  this 
warning  both  of  them  left  for  Petrogi*ad,  but  on 
their  way  thither  were  arrested,  and  conveyed  under 
escort  to  the  fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  from 
whence  Count  Fredericks  in  view  of  his  advanced  age 
(he  is  over  eighty),  and  of  the  precarious  state  of  his 
health,  was  transferred  to  the  Evangelical  hospital. 
General  VoyeikofF  having  been  invited  to  tear  off  the 
initials  of  Nicholas  II.  from  his  epaulettes,  proudly 
refused  to  do  so,  and  declared  that  he  had  rather  take 
off  these  epaulettes  altogether.  He  was  the  only  one 
who  did  not  consent  to  submit  to  the  orders  of  the 
government  in  that  respect,  all  the  other  members  of 
Nicholas  II. 's  military  household  having  shown  them- 
selves but  too  eager  to  do  it.  General  Roussky  divest- 
ing himself  of  his  aiguillettes  five  minutes  after  the 
Emperor  had  handed  over  his  abdication  to  the  Dele- 
gates sent  by  the  Duma  to  require  it  from  him. 

The  unfortunate  Monarch  returned  to  JMohilew 
from  Pskov  on  the  17th  of  March.  On  the  next  day 
arrived  there  by  special  train  his  mother,  the  Dow- 
ager Empress  Marie,  who,  upon  hearing  of  the  mis- 
fortunes that  had  befallen  her  son,  had  hastened 
to  his  side.  Their  relations  had  been  more  than 
strained  for  a  long  time,  thanks  to  the  intrigues 
of  the  Empress  Alexandra,  but  in  those  moments 
of  agony  the  mother's  heart  forgot  aught  else  save 


294  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

that  her  child  was  in  trouble,  and  she  rushed  to  him 
to  try  at  least  to  help  him  by  her  presence  to  bear 
it.  Nicholas  II.  felt  the  nobility  of  this  conduct,  and 
the  few  days  which  he  spent  with  Marie  Feodorovna 
did  away  with  much  of  the  bitterness  that  had  pre- 
sided at  their  intercourse  with  each  other  for  some 
time.  But  what  they  must  have  been  for  the  widowed 
Empress  it  would  be  hardly  possible  to  imagine.  She 
understood  but  too  well,  if  he  did  not,  the  perils  which 
awaited  her  son  in  the  future,  and  the  contrast  which 
his  reign  had  presented  with  that  of  his  father  must 
have  filled  her  soul  with  agony  and  distress.  Fate 
proved  itself  indeed  hard  for  this  noble  woman,  be- 
cause it  inflicted  upon  her  that  last,  supreme  sorrow, 
of  seeing,  before  her  train  carried  her  back  to  this 
town  of  KiefF  which  she  had  made  her  home  for  the 
last  two  years,  Nicholas  II.  taken  away  a  captive  to 
that  palace  that  was  to  know  him  no  longer  for  its 
master. 

If  one  is  to  believe  all  that  one  hears,  it  seems  that 
it  was  General  Alexieieff,  together  with  General 
Roussky  and  a  few  socialist  leaders,  who  insisted  on 
the  provisional  government  ordering  the  arrest  of  the 
former  Czar  and  of  his  Consort.  They  represented 
to  Mr.  Miliukoff  and  to  his  colleagues,  that  it  would 
be  the  height  of  imprudence  to  allow  the  Empress  to 
remain  at  liberty  and  able  to  go  on  intriguing,  as  was 
her  wont,  against  the  new  administration.  On  the 
other  hand  sending  the  Imperial  family  immediately 
abroad  had  also  its  inconveniences,  because  their 
presence  in  Denmark  or  in  England  would  only  have 
been  a  cause  of  embarrassment  to  the  Allies.    Then 


The  Great  Revolution  295 

again,  the  hatred  of  the  population  of  Petrograd 
for  Alexandra  Feodorovna  had  reached  such  im- 
mense proportions  that  it  was  feared  it  would  give 
way  to  excesses  against  her,  and  even  attempts  to 
murder  her,  if  some  kind  of  satisfaction  were  not 
given  to  its  incensed  feelings  in  respect  to  a  woman 
who  was  considered  everywhere  in  the  light  of  the 
worst  of  traitors.  For  this  reason  or  for  another,  it 
is  not  quite  clear,  but  most  likely  because  of  the  rep- 
resentations made  by  Roussky  and  by  Alexieieff,  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma,  which  was  then 
the  highest  authority  in  Russia,  decided  to  arrest 
Nicholas  II.  together  with  his  Consort. 

Four  members  of  the  Duma,  Messrs.  Boublikoff, 
Gribounine,  Verschinine  and  Kalinine,  were  com- 
manded to  repair  to  Mohilew,  and  to  signify  to  the  ex- 
Emperor  the  decision  of  the  government.  It  seems 
that  what  had  hastened  it  had  been  the  discovery  of  a 
correspondence  between  the  Empress  and  Protopo- 
poff,  which  the  latter,  in  abject  fear  for  his  life,  had 
himself  given  up  to  the  Duma,  hoping  that  he  would 
thus  be  able  to  drive  away  from  his  own  person  the 
responsibility  for  the  conspiracy  which  had  been  going 
on  at  Tsarskoie  Selo,  under  the  plea  that  he  had  been 
compelled  to  obey  the  orders  which  had  been  given 
to  him.  Apart  from  this  correspondence,  other  things 
had  come  to  light;  amongst  others  the  part  that  a 
Thibetan  doctor,  who  had  been  a  friend  of  Rasputin, 
and  whom  Madame  Vyroubieva  had  introduced  to  the 
Empress,  had  played  in  the  private  life  of  the  Impe- 
rial pair.  It  seems  that  he  had  given  to  Alexandra 
Feodorovna  certain  drinks  and  drugs,  which,   un- 


296  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

known  to  him,  she  had  administered  to  Nicholas  II., 
with  the  result  that  the  latter  had  been  completely 
stupefied,  and  had  become  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  his 
enterprising  wife.  The  fact  sounds  incredible,  and 
I  would  not  have  mentioned  it  here  had  it  not  been 
that  young  Prince  Youssoupoff,  one  of  those  who 
had  executed  Rasputin,  publicly  spoke  about  it  dur- 
ing an  interview  which  after  his  return  to  Petrograd 
from  the  exile  whither  he  had  been  sent  by  the  Czar, 
he  awarded  to  a  correspondent  of  the  Vovoie  Vremia, 
where  the  account  of  it  was  published.  Both  these 
incidents  gave  a  free  hand  to  those  who,  from  the 
very  first  day  of  the  Revolution,  had  insisted  upon 
the  Empress  being  put  under  restraint,  and  once  this 
measure  was  adopted,  it  was  hardly  possible  not  to 
extend  it  also  to  Nicholas  II. 

The  Commissioners  started  on  March  20th  for 
Mohilew.  General  Alexieieff  had  been  privately  in- 
formed as  to  the  reason  of  their  arriving  there,  and, 
unknown  to  others,  gave  orders  for  the  Emperor's 
train  to  be  prepared  to  carry  him  away  at  a  moment's 
notice.  At  four  o'clock  of  the  afternoon  of  March 
21st,  the  Commissioners  reached  their  destination, 
and  they  sent  at  once  for  the  General,  with  whom  they 
held  a  conference  of  about  twenty  minutes.  He  as- 
sured them  that  he  had  already  made  full  prepara- 
tion for  the  departure  of  the  Monarch.  They  asked 
him  for  a  list  of  the  people  in  attendance  on  the  lat- 
ter, and  noticing  thereon  the  name  of  Admiral  Niloff , 
who  was  considered  to  be  one  of  the  staunchest  suj)- 
porters  of  the  Empress,  they  said  at  once  that  he 
could  not  travel  in  the  Imperial  train,  and  sent  for 


The  Great  Revolution  297 

him  to  acquaint  him  with  the  fact.  Niloff  asked  only 
if  he  was  to  consider  hmiself  as  being  under  arrest, 
but  the  commissioners  assured  him  that  they  had  re- 
ceived no  orders  to  that  effect. 

Whilst  this  was  going  on,  Nicholas  II.  was  lunching 
with  his  mother  in  the  latter's  special  train,  which  all 
the  time  of  her  stay  in  Mohilew  had  remained  at  the 
station,  and  which  she  had  not  left  during  these  days. 
General  AlexieiefF  was  the  one  who  took  it  upon  him- 
self to  tell  the  Czar  that  he  had  been  made  a 
a  prisoner.  He  boarded  the  train  of  the  Empress, 
pushed  himself  most  unceremoniously  into  the  car- 
riage where  she  was  sitting  with  her  son,  and  ac- 
quainted the  latter  with  his  fate.  Neither  the  de- 
posed Sovereign  nor  the  widowed  Empress  said  a 
word.  She  simply  got  up  and  went  to  the  window. 
She  saw  a  crowd  of  people  standing  around  her  train, 
and  the  one  that  was  about  to  carry  away  her  son,  then 
she  turned  back,  and  folded  him  in  one  long  embrace. 
Speech  was  impossible  to  either  of  them  and  Marie 
Feodorovna  remained  tearless  all  through  this  trag- 
edy. 

On  the  platform  were  standing  several  officers 
who  had  formerly  been  attached  to  the  person  of  the 
Emperor,  whilst  he  had  been  in  command  of  the  army. 
They  were  waiting  to  say  good-bye  to  their  former 
chief.  A  guard,  no  longer  of  honour  alas!  was  also 
standing  at  the  door  of  the  railway  compartment  as- 
signed to  him,  who  a  few  days  before  had  been  the 
Czar  of  All  the  Russias,  together  with  the  commis- 
sioners of  the  Duma,  into  whose  hands  AlexieiefF  de- 
livered his  prisoner.    Nicholas  II.  passed  on  from  his 


298  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

mother's  train  to  his  own.  Every  head  was  uncov- 
ered ;  he  spoke  to  no  one,  and  no  one  spoke.  A  silence 
akin  to  that  of  the  grave  prevailed.  Standing  at  the 
window  of  her  carriage  could  be  seen  the  figure  of  the 
Empress  Marie  watching  this  sad  departure.  A  few 
minutes  later  the  train  started  on  its  mournful  jour- 
ney.   Another  act  in  this  drama  had  come  to  an  end. 

Whilst  this  was  going  on  at  Mohilew,  the  officer  in 
command  of  the  garrison  of  Petrograd,  General 
Korniloffy  had  repaired  to  Tsarskoie  Selo.  From  the 
station  he  telephoned  to  Count  BenckendorfF,  the  head 
of  the  Imperial  household,  asking  him  when  he  could 
see  the  Empress.  The  Count  asked  him  to  wait  a  few 
minutes  at  the  instrument,  and  then  told  him  that 
Alexandra  Feodorovna  would  be  ready  to  receive  him 
in  half  an  hour.  At  the  appointed  time  the  General 
was  introduced  into  the  presence  of  the  Sovereign 
who  entered  the  room  dressed  in  deep  black,  but  as 
haughty  as  ever,  and  asked  him  in  ironical  tones  to 
what  she  was  indebted  for  the  honour  of  his  visit. 
KorniloiF  got  up,  and  briefly  communicated  to  her  the 
decision  of  the  government  in  respect  to  her  person, 
and  warned  her  that  the  Palace  would  be  strictly 
watched,  and  all  communications  between  her  and  the 
outside  world  forbidden.  The  Empress  then  en- 
quired whether  her  personal  servants  and  those  of  her 
children  would  be  left  to  her,  and  after  having  been 
reassured  as  to  that  point,  she  withdrew  as  impassible 
as  ever,  though  strong  hysterics  seized  her  as  soon  as 
she  was  once  more  alone  in  her  private  apartments. 

The  guard  in  charge  of  the  Palace  was  changed ;  the 
telephone  and  private  post  and  telegraph  office  were 


The  Great  Revolution  299 

taken  over  by  a  staff  which  General  KorniloiF  had 
brought  over  with  him  from  Petrograd,  and  the  Em- 
press was  informed  that  she  could  not  leave  her  rooms, 
even  for  a  walk,  without  the  permission  of  the  officer 
in  charge  of  the  troops  quartered  in  the  Imperial  resi- 
dence. Though  no  orders  had  been  issued  in  regard  to 
her  personal  attendants,  yet  the  proud  Princess  was 
to  find  that  most  of  them  had  left  her  of  their  own  ac- 
cord. Her  children  were  all  ill  with  a  severe  attack 
of  measles,  but  this  did  not  prevent  the  salaried 
domestics  who  up  to  that  moment  had  been  so  happy 
and  eager  to  be  allowed  the  privilege  of  serving  her, 
deserting  her  in  the  hour  of  her  need.  The  few  friends 
she  thought  she  could  rely  upon  were  in  prison.  She 
was  alone,  all  alone;  and  so  she  was  to  remain  until 
the  end.  The  devotion  with  which  Marie  Antoinette 
was  surrounded  during  the  tragedy  of  her  existence 
was  not  known  by  Alexandra  Feodorovna  in  the 
drama  of  her  life.  She  had  made  far  too  many  ene- 
mies during  the  time  of  her  splendour  and  prosperity 
to  find  any  one  willing  to  cheer  and  comfort  her  in 
the  hour  of  her  misfortune. 

And  the  next  day  her  husband  was  brought  back 
to  that  Palace  of  Tsarskoie  Selo  they  had  both  liked 
so  much,  brought  back  a  prisoner  to  find  her  captive. 
What  did  she  think  when  she  saw  him  again?  Did  she 
realise  at  last  all  the  evil  which  she  had  done,  all  the 
misery,  which,  thanks  to  her  influence,  had  overtaken 
the  Emperor  whose  crown  she  had  shared?  How  did 
she  feel  in  presence  of  this  catastrophe,  of  this  wreck 
of  all  her  ambitions,  plans  and  hopes?  Outwardly 
she  made  no  sign  that  she  understood  the  full  signifi- 


300  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

cance  of  the  events  that  had  swallowed  her  up  in  their 
depths,  together  with  her  pride  and  haughtiness.  She 
only  manifested  some  emotion  when  told  that  the  body 
of  Rasputin  had  been  exhumed  and  burned  publicly 
by  exasperated  crowds.  Otherwise  she  remained 
silent  and  if  not  resigned  at  least  disdainful,  even 
when  she  was  subjected  to  a  close  interrogation  by 
General  KornilofF,  who  was  deputed  to  examine  her 
as  to  certain  points  in  the  correspondence  which  Mr. 
Protopopoff  had  surrendered  to  the  Dmna.  She  de- 
nied to  every  one  the  right  to  question  her ;  she  proud- 
ly refused  to  reply  to  the  demands  addressed  to  her, 
and  it  was  only  when  she  was  alone  in  her  rooms  that 
she  used  to  give  way  to  terrible  fits  of  despair  at  the 
loss  of  that  grandeur  by  which  her  head  had  been 
turned.  Her  children  were  so  ill  that  they  could  not 
even  be  told  of  the  change  that  had  taken  place  in 
their  existences  and  destinies.  Her  husband  was  too 
much  crushed  by  the  weight  of  all  the  calamities  which 
had  fallen  upon  him  to  be  able  to  comfort  her  in  any 
way.  Her  friends  had  left  her,  her  attendants  had 
forsaken  her,  her  family  had  abandoned  her.  .  .  . 
And  it  was  thus,  amidst  the  stillness  of  sorrow  and  of 
anxiety,  that  the  curtain  was  to  fall  upon  the  tragedy 
of  Nicholas  II.  and  of  Alexandra  Feodorovna,  or  at 
least  upon  one  of  its  principal  acts.  .  .  . 


PART  III 
THE  RIDDLE  OF  THE  FUTURE 


CONCLUSION 

More  than  one  year  has  gone  by  since  the  events 
narrated  in  this  book,  and  it  is  possible  now  to  throw 
a  retrospective  glance  on  them,  as  well  as  on  all  the 
tragedies  that  have  followed  the  fall  of  the  Roman- 
offs. It  has  been  proved  beyond  doubt  that  it  is  not 
sufficient  to  destroy  a  political  system  and  to  over- 
turn a  monarchy.  These  must  be  rej)laced  by  some- 
thing else,  and  it  is  this  something  else  which  Russia 
has  been  vainly  looking  for  during  the  last  twelve 
months.  After  the  abdication  of  Nicholas  II.,  suc- 
cessors had  to  be  found  to  take  up  the  power  which 
had  been  snatched  out  of  his  hands  owing  to  the 
clamours  of  public  indignation  at  his  weakness  of 
character  and  want  of  comprehension  of  the  needs  of 
his  people.  These  successors,  who  were  taken  here 
and  there  in  the  hazards  of  an  adventure  brought 
about  by  the  intrigues  of  a  few  and  by  the  cowardice 
of  many,  who  were  they?  What  did  they  represent? 
And  what  elements  of  strength  did  they  possess? 
They  were  called  upon  to  take  the  direction  of  the  des- 
tinies of  their  Fatherland  in  an  hour  of  national 
crisis,  such  as  it  had  never  known  before  in  the  whole 
course  of  its  history,  and  to  try  to  save  a  situation 
which  had  become  already  so  entangled  that  it  had 
almost  reached  the  limits  of  desperation.  It  is  pos- 
sible to-day  to  pass  judgment  on  the  first  government 

303 


304  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

that  assumed  authority  after  the  fall  of  the  un- 
fortunate Czar.  And,  much  as  one  would  like  to 
think  well  of  it,  it  must  be  admitted  that  though  it 
was  composed  of  men  of  great  talent  and  integrity, 
it  did  not  possess  one  single  character  determined 
enough  and  strong  enough  to  deliver  it  from  the 
demagogues  who  had  secured  an  entry  into  it,  and 
from  the  anarchist  elements  that  had  tried  from  the 
very  outset  to  impose  themselves  upon  it  and  their 
doctrines.  Moreover  these  men  were  devoid  of  ex- 
perience, and  they  believed  sincerely  (there  can  be 
no  doubt  as  to  this  point)  but  absolutely  erroneously, 
that  it  was  sufficient  for  them  and  their  party  to  come 
to  the  foreground  in  order  to  bring  about  in  Russia 
an  era  of  bliss  such  as  exists  only  in  fairy  tales. 
Among  them  was  found  Alexander  Kerensky,  a  So- 
cialist, one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Labour  Party,  an 
indifferent  lawyer  but  a  most  eloquent  speaker,  who, 
better  than  any  one  else  in  Russia,  understood  the  art 
of  stirring  the  souls  and  appealing  to  the  passions 
of  the  crowds  upon  which  he  relied  to  keep  him  in 
power ;  and  who  by  his  wonderful  speeches  could  eas- 
ily lead  these  crowds  upon  any  road  he  wished  to 
have  them  follow,  though  it  might  not  land  them 
where  they  imagined  they  were  going.  Kerensky 
imposed  himself  upon  the  Revolution  in  the  same 
way  he  imposed  himself  upon  a  jury,  and  he  treated 
it  as  he  would  have  treated  a  jury  during  a  crim- 
inal trial.  Of  politics  he  had  but  a  hazy  idea;  of 
the  art  of  government  he  understood  nothing.  He 
believed  in  the  value  of  words,  and  imagined  that 
he  could  establish  in  Russia  an  ideal  State,  living 


The  Riddle  of  the  Future  305 

upon  ideal  principles.  But  at  one  time  he  was  popu- 
lar, and  people  thought  him  a  strong  man,  whilst  he 
was  only  an  eloquent  demagogue.  With  this  he  had 
an  overbearing  character,  would  not  admit  contradic- 
tion, and  soon  was  at  variance  with  his  colleagues  in 
the  ministry,  who,  unfortunately  for  Russia,  were 
as  weak  as  he  was  himself  but  with  less  tyrannical 
dispositions;  they  retired  when  they  found  that 
they  could  not  prevent  him  from  carrying  out  his 
plans  of  reforming  the  army  and  of  abolishing  its 
military  discipline,  without  which  no  troops  in  the 
world  could  be  expected  to  stand  bravely  in  pres- 
ence of  an  attacking  foe.  It  is  a  thousand  pities 
that  men  like  Paul  Milyukoff,  Prince  George  Lvoff, 
Rodzianko  and  others,  to  whose  initiative  was  due 
the  success  of  the  Revolution,  allowed  themselves 
to  be  overruled  by  Kerensky,  until  he  was  left 
alone  to  bear  upon  his  shoulders  the  whole  bur- 
den of  the  govermnent  and  the  whole  responsi- 
bility of  the  war,  when  he  collapsed  like  a  weak 
reed  at  the  first  real  attack  directed  against 
him. 

Another  misfortune  connected  with  the  govern- 
ment that  replaced  that  of  Nicholas  II.  was  that  it 
failed  to  recognise  the  terrible  German  propaganda 
that  was  carried  on  with  renewed  energy  in  Russia 
after  the  Revolution.  It  would  not  believe  in  its 
danger,  and  it  could  not  bring  itself  to  employ  vio- 
lence to  put  an  end  to  the  Socialist  or,  rather,  anar- 
chist agitation  fomented  by  German  intrigues  and 
kept  up  by  German  money,  which  alone  has  rendered 
possible  the  triumph  of  Bolschevikism  and  the  seiz- 


3o6  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ure  of  supreme  power  by  people  such  as  Lenine, 
Trotzky,  Kameneff,  and  other  personaHties  of  the 
same  kind,  and  the  same  doubtful  or,  rather,  not 
doubtful  reputation. 

And  yet  it  would  have  been  relatively  easy  to  put 
an  end  to  the  career  of  these  men,  had  one  only  ap- 
plied oneself  to  do  so  in  time  and  bravely  faced  the 
criticisms  of  the  people  who  were  in  their  pay,  or  in 
their  employ.  The  whole  story  of  the  Lenine- 
Trotzky  intrigue  has  not  yet  been  told,  at  least  not 
here  in  America;  and  it  may  not  be  without  interest 
to  disclose  some  of  its  details.  When  Milyukoff  and 
Prince  Lvoff  proceeded  to  form  a  government  after 
the  overthrow  of  the  Monarchy,  they  offered  the  port- 
folio of  Justice  to  a  Moscow  lawyer  called  Karensky 
(nothing  to  do  with  Alexander  Kerensky)  who  en- 
joyed the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  most  elo- 
quent, and,  at  the  same  time,  honest  members  of  the 
Moscow  Bar.  They  called  him  to  Petrograd,  where 
they  held  several  consultations  with  him.  Karensky 
declared  himself  ready  to  accept  the  position  offered 
him,  but  only  on  one  condition:  that  he  would  be 
given  an  absolutely  free  hand  to  proceed  with  the 
greatest  energy  and  vigour  against  all  the  German 
spies  and  agents  with  which  the  Capital  was  infested, 
and  that  he  would  also  be  allowed  the  same  free  hand 
in  his  dealings  with  the  anarchists  who  were  begin- 
ning to  make  themselves  heard.  Neither  Prince 
Lvoff  nor  Milyukoff  would  agree  to  give  him  these 
powers  he  demanded.  They  feared  that  if  they  did 
so  they  would  be  reproached  for  doing  exactly  the 
same  as  the  government  that  had  crumbled  down  a 


The  Riddle  of  the  Future  307 

few  days  before;  and  they  also  objected  to  allowing 
a  member  of  the  cabinet  to  dispose  at  his  will  and 
fancy  of  such  grave  questions  as  those  involved  in  re- 
pression exercised  against  any  political  party,  no 
matter  of  what  shade  or  opinion.  Karensky  there- 
upon refused  the  position  offered  to  him,  but  accepted 
the  post  of  State  Prosecutor  under  Alexander 
Kerensky  at  first,  and,  afterwards,  when  the  latter 
had  been  transferred  to  the  war  office,  under  Mr. 
Pereviazeff.  This  allowed  him  to  watch  the  grow- 
ing German  agitation,  connected  with  anarchist  con- 
spiracies, which  was  beginning  to  feel  its  way  previ- 
ous to  its  explosion.  He  had  heard  about  Lenine 
and  Trotzky,  and  was  from  the  first  convinced  that 
they  were  both  in  the  employ  of  the  Kaiser  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  and  he  set  himself  to  obtain 
proof  that  such  was  the  case.  He  had  wondered  at 
the  easiness  with  which  Lenine  had  been  able  to  ob- 
tain a  passport  from  the  German  government  author- 
ising him  to  cross  the  dominions  of  William  II.  on  his 
way  from  Switzerland  to  Russia.  He,  therefore, 
had  the  correspondence  of  both  Lenine  and  Trotzky 
watched,  and  very  soon  his  attention  was  attracted 
by  the  fact  that  they  were  both  sending  and  receiv- 
ing constantly  telegrams  to  and  from  Sweden  and 
Finland,  all  of  which  were  deeply  concerned  with  the 
health  of  a  certain  "Kola"  who  seemed  to  be  always 
getting  ill,  and  then  better,  in  a  sort  of  regular  way 
which  appeared  more  than  strange.  This  was  the 
first  remark  which  led  to  the  result  that  at  last,  it 
was  established,  to  the  absolute  satisfaction  of  Ka- 
rensky and  of  others,  that  Trotzky,  Lenine,  Kamen- 


3o8  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

eff,  a  certain  Zinovieff,  a  lawyer  called  Kozlovsky,  a 
lady  going  by  the  name  of  Madame  Soumentay,  and 
the  wife  of  Lenine,  had  received  not  less  than  nine- 
teen millions  of  rubles  from  the  German  govern- 
ment. This  money  had  been  sent  through  so  many 
different  channels  that  it  was  next  to  impossible  to 
discover  its  origin.  It  had  passed  through  eight 
banks,  and,  I  do  not  now  remember,  through  how 
many  private  hands.  But  the  people  whose  names 
I  have  just  mentioned  had  received  it,  partly  in  Rus- 
sian banknotes,  and  partly  in  banknotes  printed  in 
Berlin,  which  were  supposed  to  be  Russian,  of  a  new 
type  with  which  the  German  government  was  begin- 
ning to  meet  its  obligations  so  as  not  to  make  them 
too  heavy  for  its  own  Exchequer. 

Karensky  sought  Prince  Lvoff,  who  was  still 
Prime  Minister  at  the  time,  and  asked  him  to  sign 
an  order  for  the  arrest  of  Trotzky  and  Lenine.  The 
Prince  had  not  the  courage  to  do  so,  and  the  State 
Prosecutor  had,  perforce,  to  wait.  But  in  July  the 
first  insurrectionary  movement,  engineered  by  the 
Bolscheviki,  broke  out,  and  then  Karensky  thought 
that  his  duty  obliged  him  to  assume  the  responsibili- 
ties which  the  ministry  did  not  care  to  face.  By  that 
time  Prince  Lvoff,  Milyukoff  and  others  had  re- 
signed, and  Kerensky  was  virtually  master  of  the 
situation.  But  he  was  wesik,  weaker  perhaps  than 
any  of  his  colleagues  had  been,  and  he  openly  de- 
clared to  the  State  Prosecutor  that  he  felt  afraid  to 
arrest  the  two  men  who  were  ultimately  to  lead  Rus- 
sia to  her  destruction.  Karensky,  however,  was 
made  of  sterner  stuff,  and  he  bravely  decided  to  act 


The  Riddle  of  the  Future  309 

for  himself,  and  signed  alone  the  order  for  the  in- 
carceration of  both  Lenine  and  Trotzky.  But  the 
former  had  been  warned,  and  had  fled  to  Finland. 
A  thorough  search  was  made  of  the  flat  which  he  oc- 
cupied, where  the  simi  of  one  million  and  a  half  of 
rubles  was  found  in  possession  of  his  wife,  who  could 
not  explain  whence  she  had  this  money.  Trotzky 
at  the  same  time  was  incarcerated  and  brought  be- 
fore the  State  Prosecutor.  The  latter,  in  order  to 
justify  the  course  of  action  he  had  taken,  had  caused 
to  be  published  in  all  the  Petrograd  and  Moscow 
newspapers  an  account  of  the  discoveries  which  he 
had  made,  together  with  the  names  of  the  people 
who  had  participated  in  the  work  of  treason  he  was 
determined  to  suppress.  A  curious  thing  in  the 
story  is  that  none  of  the  papers  that  printed  it  (and 
they  all  did  with  the  exception  of  the  Bolschevik  or- 
gan Prawda) ,  was  allowed  to  get  abroad,  which  ac- 
counts for  the  fact  of  no  publicity  having  been  given 
to  the  story.  Petrograd  then  was  exasperated 
against  Trotzky  to  such  an  extent  that  Karensky 
feared  he  would  be  lynched,  and  caused  him  to  be 
conveyed  to  the  prison  called  "Kresty"  in  an  auto- 
mobile driven  by  his  own  son,  as  no  chauffeur  would 
undertake  to  drive  him  there.  What  happened  later 
on  remains  to  this  day  a  mystery.  The  JMinister  of 
Justice,  Mr.  Pereviazeff,  resigned  his  functions  two 
days  after  the  arrest  of  Trotzky,  and  his  place  was 
taken  by  Nekrassoif,  who,  when  asked  by  the  Com- 
mittees of  soldiers  and  peasants  who  had  begun  by 
that  time  to  be  all  powerful,  to  give  the  reasons  which 
had  induced  the  government  to  resort  to  this  meas- 


310  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

ure,  became  so  embarrassed  in  his  replies  that  these 
Committees  insisted  on  Trotzky  being  set  at  liberty, 
which  was  done  three  days  afterwards.  Karensky 
then  resigned  his  functions,  and  returned  to  Mos- 
cow whence,  however,  he  was  obliged  to  fly  and  seek 
a  refuge  in  Kharkov,  as  soon  as  the  Bolscheviki 
seized  the  government.  The  latter  inaugurated  a 
system  of  terrorism  that  claimed  more  victims  than 
is  known  abroad,  completed  the  disorganisation  of 
the  army,  and  at  last  started  the  negotiations  which 
culminated  in  the  shameful  peace  signed  at  Brest 
Litovsk.  After  three  and  a  half  years'  war  and  a 
Revolution,  Russia  as  an  independent  nation  ceased 
to  exist,  and  became  virtually,  and  to  all  appearance, 
a  German  province. 

This  is  the  story  as  it  reads,  and  sad  enough  it 
sounds.  Germany  can  look  triumphantly  on  the 
success  of  her  work  and  glory  in  it.  Happily  for 
Russia,  for  the  world  and  for  the  cause  of  civilisa- 
tion, it  is  only  one  chapter  of  it  that  has  come  to  an 
end.  Russia,  the  great  Russia  of  the  past,  is  not 
dead.  She  possesses  far  more  vitality  than  she  is 
given  credit  for,  and  she  still  has  sound,  true,  and 
honest  elements  amidst  her  citizens.  When  attempt- 
ing to  judge  her,  one  ought  to  think  of  the  great 
French  Revolution,  and  to  remember  that  in  France, 
also,  it  took  years  before  its  work  was  at  last  con- 
solidated and  set  upon  a  sound  basis.  One  must 
bear  in  mind  that  in  France,  too,  a  period  of  terror- 
ism made  people  despair  of  the  future  and  fear  that 
the  end  of  their  Fatherland  had  come.  Our  Rus- 
sian Revolution  is  hardly  one  year  old,  and  though 


^^  /^ 


^y-^/r^ 


^<A^ 


Copyright,  International  Film  Serrice.  Inc. 

Peace  Document  of  Delegates  at  Brest-Litovsk  Conference 


The  Riddle  of  the  Future  311 

perhaps  one  will  be  aghast  at  what  I  am  going  to 
say,  I  think  that  she  has  not  yet  passed  through  that 
phase  of  real  terror  which  is  always  a  symptom  of 
great  upheavals  such  as  Russia  has  undergone  and 
is  undergoing.  We  may  see  worse  things  yet;  we 
may  live  to  look  upon  the  erection  of  a  scaffold  on 
one  of  the  squares  of  Petrograd  or  of  Moscow.  But 
this  will  not  mean  that  the  end  of  Russia  has  come, 
nor  that  she  has  become,  or  will  remain,  a  German 
province.  The  hatred  of  the  Teuton,  on  the  con- 
trary, will  grow  as  events  progress  and  the  great  dis- 
illusion arrives.  A  few  more  months,  and  the  peas- 
ants whom  Trotzky,  Lenine  and  their  crew  have  lured 
with  false  promises  will  perceive  that  these  dema- 
gogues have  been  unable  to  fulfil  all  that  they  had 
sworn  to  them  they  would  do.  They  will  realise  that 
their  lot  has  become  under  the  rule  of  these  new  mas- 
ters ten  thousand  times  harder  than  was  the  case 
before,  and  they  will  be  the  first  to  rise  against  these 
deceivers.  If  we  are  to  believe  all  that  we  hear  from 
people  who  have  arrived  here  from  Russia  recently, 
this  movement  of  reaction  has  already  started,  and 
it  is  bound  to  grow  stronger  with  every  day  and  hour 
which  goes  by.  The  peace  signed  at  Brest  Litovsk 
will  remain  verily  a  "scrap  of  paper"  which  will  end 
by  being  thrown  into  the  waste-paper  basket.  Not 
one  Russian  will  recognise  it,  not  one  Russian  will 
accept  it;  the  Germans  feel  it  themselves,  and  are 
preparing  for  a  new  struggle  which  may  have  a  far 
different  conclusion  from  the  one  which  they  are  now 
trying  to  persuade  the  world  has  come  to  an  end. 
What  has  helped  them,  apart  from  the  treason  of 


312  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

Trotzky,  Lenine  and  their  followers,  who  have  only 
had  one  idea  in  heart  and  brain,  that  of  enriching 
themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  country  for  which 
they  feel  neither  affection  nor  pity,  has  been  the  state 
of  confusion  into  which  Russia  was  thrown  by  the 
Revolution  that  broke  up  so  unexpectedly — a  con- 
fusion which  can  only  be  compared  to  that  which 
prevails  in  the  house  of  a  man  whom  sudden  ruin  has 
overtaken,  when  every  servant  or  menial  in  the  place 
tries  to  steal  and  take  something  in  the  general  dis- 
aster or  to  profit  out  of  it  in  some  way  or  other.  In 
Petrograd,  in  Moscow,  as  well  as  all  over  the  coun- 
try, looting  took  place,  not  only  of  private  property, 
but  also  of  the  Public  Exchequer,  especially  of  the 
latter,  and  the  Russian  officials,  who  had  always  been 
grasping,  became  all  at  once  bandits  after  the  style 
of  Rinaldo  Rinaldino,  or  any  other  brigand  illustrated 
by  drama  or  comedy.  They  stole;  they  took;  they 
carried  away;  they  seized  everything  they  could  lay 
their  hands  upon.  To  begin  with  the  silver  spoons 
of  the  unfortunate  Czar  and  as  many  of  the  Crown 
Jewels  as  they  could  get  hold  of,  down  to  the  paper 
money  issued  by  the  State  Treasury,  of  which,  as  the 
Kerensky  government  had  to  own  before  the  so- 
called  National  Assembly  at  Moscow,  eight  hundred 
millions  were  put  into  circulation  every  month  after 
the  Revolution,  in  contrast  with  two  hundred  mil- 
lions which  were  issued  formerly.  I  do  not  think  that 
it  is  a  libel  on  these  officials  to  suppose  that  part  of 
this  fabulous  sum  found  its  way  into  their  pockets, 
instead  of  being  applied  to  the  needs  of  the  nation  or 
of  the  army. 


The  Riddle  of  the  Future  313 

This  wholesale  plundering,  if  I  may  be  forgiven 
for  using  such  a  word,  was  of  course  not  the  fault  of 
Kerensky  and  of  his  colleagues,  under  whose  minis- 
try it  began,  but  whereas  the  latter  realised  immedi- 
ately that  it  was  taking  place  and  resigned  rather  than 
countenance  it ;  the  former,  though  aware  of  it,  found 
his  hands  tied  in  every  attempt  he  made  to  subdue 
it,  by  the  fact  that  those  who  were  principally  guilty 
were  either  his  personal  friends  or  his  former  parti- 
sans, or  people  with  whom  he  had  associated  in  ear- 
lier times,  and  with  whom  he  had  compromised  him- 
self to  a  considerable  extent.  With  regard  to  those 
associates  of  his  former  life,  Kerensky  found  himself 
in  the  same  position  as  Napoleon  III.  after  his  ac- 
cession, in  presence  of  the  Italian  Carbonari,  who 
claimed  from  the  Sovereign  the  fulfilment  of  the 
promises  made  to  them  by  the  exiled  Pretender. 
Kerensky  had  also  given  certain  pledges  at  a  time 
when  he  never  expected  he  might  be  called  upon  to 
redeem  them ;  and  when  he  became  a  Minister  he  had 
to  give  way  to  the  exigencies  of  all  the  radicals,  an- 
archists, and  extreme  socialists  among  whom  he  had 
laboured,  and  with  whom  he  had  worked  at  the  over- 
throw of  the  detested  and  detestable  government  of 
the  Czar.  He  could  not  cast  them  overboard  or  set 
them  aside.  He  had  to  listen  to  them,  and  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  to  submit  to  their  demands.  For  example, 
in  the  case  of  the  exile  to  Siberia  of  the  unfortunate 
Nicholas  II.,  a  measure  which  in  the  first  days  of  the 
Revolution  he  had  declared  that  he  would  never  re- 
sort to,  but  which  he  nevertheless  executed  under  con- 
ditions of  the  most  intense  cruelty,  simply  because  it 


314  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

was  demanded  from  him  by  persons  to  whom  he  could 
not  say  no.  People  who  knew  him  well  say  that  the 
fact  of  his  powerlessness  caused  him  intense  suffer- 
ing, but  he  had  neither  the  strength  to  assert  himself 
in  presence  of  his  former  comrades,  nor,  perhaps,  the 
will  to  do  so. 

In  a  certain  sense,  he  was  the  man  of  the  hour, 
"le  maitre  de  I'heure,"  as  the  Franco- Arab  proverb 
says.  He  was  even  to  some  extent  the  one  indis- 
pensable element  without  which  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  a  Republic  ever  to  become  established 
in  Russia.  And  everybody  seemed  to  agree,  one 
year  ago,  that  a  Republic  was  the  only  form  of  gov- 
ernment possible  after  the  fall  of  the  Romanoffs.  Of 
this  Republic  Kerensky  rapidly  became  the  symbol 
and  at  the  same  time  the  emblem  of  a  new  Russia;  a 
regenerated  and  better  one,  in  the  opinion  of  his  fol- 
lowers of  the  moment ;  a  worse  one  from  what  it  had 
been  formerly,  in  that  of  his  adversaries,  but  at  all 
events  of  a  different  Russia  from  the  one  previously 
known. 

But,  unfortunately,  Kerensky  was  neither  a  states- 
man like  Milyukoff  nor  an  administrator  like  Prince 
Lvoff,  nor  even  a  business  man  like  Konovaloff.  He 
lacked  experience  and  knowledge  of  the  routine  of 
government.  He  had  but  a  limited  amount  of  edu- 
cation, no  idea  of  the  feelings  of  people  born  and 
reared  in  a  different  atmosphere  from  that  in  which 
he  had  grown  up.  He  was  only  a  leader  of  men,  or 
rather  of  the  passions  of  men;  and,  unfortunately  for 
him,  what  Russia  required  was  more  a  ruler  than  a 
leader,   of  whom   she   had  more   than   she   wanted. 


The  Riddle  of  the  Future  315 

though  perhaps  at  that  particular  moment  none  so 
powerful  as  Kerensky.  He  had  emerged  a  Dictator 
out  of  a  complete  and  general  chaos;  and  he  was  to 
add  to  it  the  whole  weight  of  his  unripe  genius  and  of 
his  exuberant  personality.  After  having  been  the 
Peter  the  Hermit  of  a  new  Crusade,  he  was  to  become 
the  false  Prophet  of  a  creed  which  he  had  preached 
with  an  eloquence  such  as  has  been  seldom  surpassed, 
but  in  which  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  himself  be- 
lieved. Had  he  consented,  or  had  he  been  able  to 
work  in  common  with  more  experienced  men  than 
himself  towards  the  triumph  of  the  Republican  cause, 
he  would  have  taken  in  the  annals  of  his  country  the 
place  of  one  of  its  greatest  men.  As  it  has  turned 
out,  he  will  rank  among  its  most  interesting  and  bril- 
liant historical  figures,  but  only  as  a  figure.  His 
disappearance  also  has  had  something  romantic  about 
it,  which  will  perhaps  appeal  to  certain  people  in 
Russia,  and  which  will  disgust  others.  The  world  is 
wondering  where  he  has  gone  and  what  has  become 
of  him;  but  everything  points  to  the  fact  that  he  has 
either  done  away  with  himself,  as  he  often  said  he 
would  do  in  case  of  failure,  or  else  that  he  has  been 
murdered  by  the  Bolscheviki  during  those  days  when 
the  Neva  and  the  different  canals  of  Petrograd  were 
carrying  away  to  the  sea  hundreds  of  dead  bodies 
every  day.  At  least  this  is  the  opinion  of  persons 
who  were  in  Russia  at  the  time  Kerensky  vanished 
into  space ;  and  very  probably  this  opinion  will  prove 
to  be  a  true  one. 

The  moderate  liberal  parties  in  Russia,  who  are  the 
really  intelligent,  would,  of  course,  wish  their  coun- 


3i6  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

try's  future  government  to  become  a  Republic  mod- 
elled after  that  of  the  United  States.  At  the  same 
time,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  rare  news  which  reaches 
us  from  Petrograd,  and  especially  from  Moscow,  one 
hears  people  say  now  what  they  would  never  have 
dared  to  mention  a  few  months  ago — i.  e.,  that  a  con- 
stitutional Monarchy,  if  it  could  be  established,  would 
oifer  certain  advantages.  I  hasten  to  say  that,  per- 
sonally, I  do  not  see  where  these  advantages  would 
come  in,  unless  they  were  associated  with  a  new  dy- 
nasty. But  at  the  same  time,  together  with  many 
others,  when  I  look  at  all  that  has  taken  place  re- 
cently in  my  poor  country,  I  cannot  but  feel  sad  at 
the  great  uncertainty  as  to  the  morrow  which  the 
Revolution  of  last  year  has  opened,  not  only  before 
Russia,  but  before  the  whole  world,  and  I  would  like 
to  see  this  incertitude  come  to  an  end  in  some  way  or 
other. 

I  have  but  little  more  to  add.  It  is  difficult  even 
to  try  to  guess  what  the  future  holds  in  store  for  the 
former  realm  of  the  Romanoffs.  The  only  thing 
which  one  can  say  at  present  with  any  certainty  is  that 
Russia  will  never  honour  the  signature  of  Trotzky  in 
regard  to  the  peace  treaty  concluded  with  Germany. 
Any  hesitation  Russia  might  have  had  as  to  this  point 
in  her  moments  of  discouragement,  that  must  have 
made  themselves  felt  at  times,  disappeared  after  the 
message  sent  by  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  the  Soviets  in  Moscow.  This  message  dispelled 
any  fear  the  Russians  might  have  had  as  to  whether 
their  allies  had  abandoned  her.  At  present  the  coun- 
try knows  that  it  does  not  stand  alone,  and  that  any 


The  Riddle  of  the  Future  317 

resistance  it  has  to  offer  to  its  foes  will  be  appreci- 
ated and  encouraged.  This  is  much,  indeed  this  is 
the  one  thing  which  was  capable  of  rousing  the  ener- 
gies of  the  whole  of  that  vast  land  which  the  Teutons 
imagine  that  they  have  conquered.  I  can  but  repeat : 
Russia  is  not  dead  yet.  Russia  shall  show  the  world 
that,  betrayed  as  she  has  been,  she  can  still  hft  the 
yoke  put  upon  her,  save  herself,  and  help  to  save  the 
world  for  the  great  cause  of  Democracy. 

And  the  conclusion  of  this  book?  I  do  not  pre- 
tend to  offer  any.  I  simply  invite  my  readers  to 
draw  the  one  they  like  best.  I  ask  them  only  to  do 
so  with  kindness  and  an  appreciation  of  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  situation.  I  have  not  tried  to  write  a  vol- 
ume of  controversy;  I  have  merely  attempted  to  de- 
scribe, as  well  as  I  could,  the  Revolution  and  the 
events  which  preceded  it,  among  which  the  extraordi- 
nary story  of  Rasputin  figures  so  curiously. 

I  have  given  the  narrative  as  it  was  related  to  me 
by  people  whose  veracity  I  have  no  reason  to  chal- 
lenge. It  is  certain,  however,  that  many  of  its  de- 
tails are  still  unknown,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether 
they  will  be  revealed  before  the  end  of  the  war.  At 
present  there  are  too  many  persons  interested  in  dis- 
simulating the  part  which  they  have  played  in  the 
drama,  either  out  of  fear,  or  because  they  do  not  think 
the  time  opportune.  It  seems  sometimes  as  if  there 
exists  a  tacit  understanding  among  the  actors  of  the 
tragedy  to  hide  the  details  of  the  conspiracy  which 
came  to  an  end  by  the  signature  of  the  Manifest  of 
Pskov.  This  signature  was  wrenched,  no  one  knows 
yet  by  just  what  means,  out  of  the  weakness  of  Nich- 


3i8  Rasputin  and  the  Russian  Revolution 

olas  II! — that  unfortunate  Monarch  who  has  never 
reahsed  the  obligations  and  duties  he  owed  to  the  na- 
tion that  dethroned  him.  The  last  crowned  Roman- 
off had  never  had,  unfortunately  for  him,  and  still 
more  unfortunately  for  his  subjects,  a  sense  of  ap- 
preciation of  the  real  value  of  facts  or  of  events, 
which  sometimes  is  even  more  useful  than  a  great  in- 
telligence, to  those  whom  destiny  has  entrusted  with 
the  difficult  task  of  ruling  over  nations.  He  be- 
lieved that  his  duty  consisted  in  upholding  the  super- 
annuated traditions  of  autocracy,  and  he  did  not  per- 
ceive that  these  traditions  had  been  maintained  so 
long  only  because  there  had  existed  strong  men  to 
enforce  them.  Honest  and  kind  of  heart  though  he 
was,  at  least  in  many  respects,  he  had  contrived  in 
spite  of  these  qualities  to  rouse  against  him  from  the 
very  first  days  of  his  accession  to  the  Throne  all  the 
social  classes  of  his  country.  He  had  irritated  the 
aristocracy,  wounded  the  feelings  of  the  army  and  of 
the  people,  and  excited  against  himself  the  passions 
of  the  proletariat  and  of  the  peasantry,  by  his  weak- 
ness of  character  and  his  obstinacy  in  surrounding 
himself  with  the  most  hated  and  most  despised  ele- 
ments in  Russia.  A  few  days  before  his  fall  he 
might  still  have  made  a  successful  effort  to  save  him- 
self and  his  dynasty,  had  he  only  followed  the  dis- 
interested advice  which  was  forwarded  to  him  by 
his  Allies  and  consented  to  the  establishment  of  a  re- 
sponsible Ministry.  He  preferred  to  listen  to  his 
wife  and  to  the  people  she  kept  around  her.  In- 
stead of  trying  to  conciliate  his  subjects,  he  threat- 
ened them,  until  the  expected  occurred,  and  he  lost 


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The  Riddle  of  the  Future  319 

not  only  his  crown  but  also  his  liberty;  and  has  per- 
haps forfeited  his  life  and  that  of  his  family. 

But  the  future,  the  future,  my  readers  will  ask  me, 
what  will  be  the  future,  what  shall  it  bring  forth  for 
Russia?  The  only  reply  possible  to  this  eager  ques- 
tion is  to  quote  the  words  of  Victor  Hugo  in  his  won- 
derful Ode  to  Napoleon:  "The  future  belongs  to  no 
one,  it  is  controlled  by  God  alone." 


X 


DK265  R36 

Radziwill,  Catherine- 
Rasputin  and  the  Russian 
revolution. 


^ 


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